Find a city and neighborhood you like and are interested in setting roots there for the long haul. Find a house that you love that can be a forever home for your preferences.

Don't think of it as an investment to flip. Think of it as home. After the purchase, no need to ever look at the property value estimates again. Just live it.

Somehow you left out the whole part about actually buying the house.

Maybe your feel good spiel would make sense if price-to-rent ratios weren't the highest but that's not the case. Most of what you pay for here is a bet that values will go up. If it weren't for stupid laws like Prop 13 that only help land speculation this wouldn't be the case.