I may be biased because it's my adopted home, but Austin is nice.It's rated #1 by Forbes as a boom town:http://www.forbes.com/sites/joelkotkin/2016/01/14/...Top three cities to find a job:http://austin.culturemap.com/news/city-life/01-04-...One of the best to start a career (which is different than finding a job:http://austin.blog.statesman.com/2016/02/03/austin...Ranked #1 city for young families:http://austin.culturemap.com/news/city-life/05-10-...There are a lot more of these articles, these were just the first five that came up when I Googled "best cities to live".

It has demographics, crime stats, economic data, etcFor school rankings, start with NJ Monthly's Top High Schools.

I would contend that where location ranks on the "importance" scale depends largely on your specific goals.

Contrary to the opinion of some, in most jurisdictions you can collect a number of applications at the same time and then rank them according to your previously established rental criteria.

Id rank them amongst the worst lenders.

Take a look at hewitt, or woodway and where they rank for safety and quality of life.

According to a recent ranking of median property taxe rates by CoreLogic's Data Team, Illinois is highest at 2.67%, Hawaii is lowest at 0.31%, New York at 2.53%, Texas at 2.17%,  Florida at 1.32%, California at 1.12%, Georgia at 1.10%, and South Carolia at 0.71%.Average tax rate across the entire country is 1.31%, so a homeowner of a $200,000 home would pay $2,620 in property taxes.I tried to copy and paste the entire table but couldn't do it from my iPad Pro.

Actually Alaska may rank up there too but when you mentioned buying in lots you'll have to have deep pockets for that. 

Most foreclosure buyers are making cash offers, which obviously puts their offer at a higher ranking than someone making an offer contingent on financing.

Any seasoned real estate investors willing to check out this website and tell me if you think this ranking is pretty accurate or not??