Tons of millionaires or billionaires in Texas, Georgia, Michigan or even Missouri got rich from real estate because investment in real estate is not exclusively from capital gain alone. In fact, if treating real estate as a long term business, more gain may come from INCOME aspect of the equition. If managed well, the rental income and its inflation-adjusted gain will eventually create great income if you are able to use cheap loan to operate a significant amount of rental properties with good cash flow. Therefore, in spite of slow growth in these lower priced states, long term investors were able to make themselves very rich. They often bought much more properties than fast growth-high-price regions, yet all under great leverage. The secret weapon for slow growth low price states is their good cash flow, better leveraging capability and eventually translating to ultra-efficiency in building INCOME. Shh…, just don’t tell these secrets to Californians or New Yorkers, let them keep the pride. Ha, ha, ha…