@Justin E. I don't have an answer for you, but wanted to welcome you to BP! I bet your market in Hawaii is much like Orange County, CA, expensive! Post your questions, and see you around the forums.
Lots of hype and self interests involved in these news media articles, many of which are written by someone without a clue to what they are writing about. Don't trust them any farther than you could throw them.
That said, what city you would invest in would largely depend on your strategy. If you were looking for buy and hold, then population growth via migration is a key factor in your decision (make sure you get up to date info). If you are flipping, population growth has much less to do with the decision.
I would not give any of them any special status as a destination because I know these internet "top tens" are generated by people without any special insights on the topic and those people don't put a lot of effort into the lists. Last week they did a top ten on cars for singles moms, next week they will do a top ten for valentines day gifts, so on and so forth.