I'll be finishing my bachelors this fall in Economics.  

Have lived through too many bad economic times and have had vacancies that take months to fill after large reductions. 

You can look at the annual rent revenue and divide it by the gross potential rent, to get an idea of what kind of economic occupancy the seller has attained for the past few years.

In my mind though there are three degrees that I think have the most direct relation to real estate investing (sorry I can't pick just one lol) and they are: (1)Economics- Real estate like all businesses, is affected by the happenings on both a macro and microeconomic scale. 

You aren't looking for a warzone that has high crime but simply an area that is slightly economically depressed and on the way back up. 

I can't seem to find any that are listed on the known stock exchanges.My background is nil, my only experience is in researching my first house that I bought right after the financial crisis.

I am planning to maximize and utilize this time to educate myself, understand the market trends in terms of incline/decline of housing volatility (mortgage perspective), job movements, and social/economic/political factor that influences in the RE market.

Guess what- financial markets, real- estate, macro-economics, credit markets, all evolve over time and are fluid.

I think that both offer a good combination of economic strength combined with good housing prices and rent/price ratios.

In short, you want to find places that:1- can generate cashflow, meaning you could buy them retail and keep your head above water.2- They have a solid economic outlook.3 - They are unlikely to depreciate in value.I did a blog post (actually, like 8 of them) on reviewing out-of-state markets some time ago; you're welcome to check it out here:  http://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/4117-my-out-of-...