@Camilo Rey It's amazing how the expenses can vary region to region and even town to town with an area sometimes. 

And this Catskill region, especially this village area, is  hot place year-round.

My thoughts so far:Population growthRent growthIncome growthEmployment growthAny idea about other metrics and which would be the most useful for choosing a target metro region?

Be prepared to come in with 20% down and closing costs (vary by state and region, but it's wise to allocate $4-10k depending on the size of your loan to account for lender points), and be pleasantly surprised if you don't need that much.

As the region is bracing for a big one, should I be getting earthquake coverage for these investment properties?

In my day job, I am the regional product manager for Microsoft's online content business in the middle east (basically MSN.com content service). 

@Russell Brazil is a very good agent that understands the region and what investors want.

Regional bank (midwest), lend all 50 states though.

They tend to have many years experience and you watch and learn as they take the project from start to finish.Right now it seems you do not even know if the base tenants will be national, regional, or local in nature.

I currently have multiple speculative development projects across the Puget Sound Region (and Colorado) in my portfolio all of which are in different stages of the process.