It is 5 or 6 hour drive from my house.  

Location is residential with a park a short drive or long walk away.

For a family earning slightly higher income than median wages, driving to work to the city and living about 30 mins away with reasonably good house on a > 400 SQM land parcel was possible and totally achieveable.

The truth is most methods work - cold call, direct mail, referral programs, driving for dollars, etc.

What mechanism would be driving such "cycles"? 

You might want to visit Detroit if you have not, and drive around the different streets in the city- but I warn you it is very dangerous in many parts.

I mean drive up and down the Eastern part of the state until you find an area that has not been completely discovered.

A good investor agent can find deals for you, you can cold call, drive around, and scour city data.

I can't figure out what the economic forces are in the community driving the high rents and relatively low purchase prices.

I remember I used to drive by my first rental property often just to make sure... - IDK, that it was still there??