Population trend?

Most agents auto populate square footage from tax data in the MLS.

I did hear about Detroit being number one but I definitely want my first property in my portfolio relatively close to where I reside so I can understand a bit easier in terms of the city's growth, population, employment, etc.

I know why I love these pains in the *** that populate this website. 

Given that meetups are mostly populated with people just starting out, how do I go about finding someone who's successfully flipping houses to shadow?

Illinois has been losing population.

Hi AllDoes anyone know a good or a series of combined sources in which it provides the historical record of an area, such as population, economy, occupation and etc?

You're not going to find someone in Poland - population 10.  

IS the population stable, increasing, decreasing....?

I'm primarily interested in buy and hold due to the strong rental market in my area (large military population), but am open to potential "flips" if that's a better proposition for a particular property.