As with your stock portfolio, I would encourage you to consider your goals - growth, income, hedge (diversity), how much involvement you wish to have (passive investment verse active), etc.  

I owe a lot of my success as an investor and growth as a real estate agent to this community.Good luck and happy investing!

I was listening to a podcast today where a company said they underwrite really conservatively using 5-6% rent growth!

Second tier cities with high growth demographics is the way to go : Raleigh, Grand Rapids, Charlottesville, Nashville, Portland, Minneapolis, ect.

You will almost certainly be taking a standard of living increase by doing that (tied up capital in home, increased property taxes, insurance, landscaping, the expense of moving/furnishing etc) It will slow your rate of growth for sure.

Locally, "dealing with the city" gets a bad rap, (part of the growing pains of the area - rezoning areas, budget constraints, rapid growth is always going to ruffle some local feathers:) but the folks down there are very friendly and timely, in my experience.

How much growth is left specifically?

Some of that growth is coming from overseas!

@Jonah Wilson Many Investors are interested in areas that not only are priced low to buy into and provide a great ROI, but that are also in areas of growth.

I am comfortable with what I have today, but my experience is that my greatest growth has come from getting totally uncomfortable.