Price to rent ratios - where to find?

Question

I want to find price to rent ratios for my local area, down to block level, or neighborhood level.  I mean, I live in South Florida, so a one size fits all number doesn't help me in any way discover the areas that I want to find.

Yet every place on the internet that used to have them, say, in map form, don't have them anymore.  It's like they just gave up on that webpage.

So is there some place on the internet that I'm missing?  Where can I find the data I need, short of getting access to the MLS, scraping a ton of data, doing the calculations myself, etc.

Stuart M. · Answer

I can also do that with realtor, zillow, etc, but I'm still back to hundreds of manual calculations.

I can't believe this information isn't available anywhere, already calculated.  What I need is like, average rent at any given lat/long point (within X ft around that point) or neighborhood, and avg sale prices too.  I want to sort for areas instead of having to look at 500 houses, one at a time, each day.

Sebastian Giraldo · Answer

I understand your dilemma @Stuart M. as an active investor/agent I find my self going back to the MLS again and again for accuracy. Especially after rentometer.com now being paid service and not as accurate. Feel free to pm me for a previous 6 month, 1/2 mile radius, closed rental search.

Stuart M. · Answer

Rents are reported by agents to the mls in my area, I know not craigslist listings, but i thought that was standard. Plus price to rent maps used to exist...

Sam Shueh · Answer

You are asking information that does not exist.  Actual rents are not reported if it is a hot housing area, there is still some room for haggling. You must narrow your search to places you know.  Cap Rate is what professionals use.

In hot urban area like both coasts, it is less than 2%, middle west you are lucky to get 4-6% these days. Good luck.

Emanuele Pani · Answer

Stuart,

I find https://www.rentometer.com/ to be a great website to find what the average rent is.

It allows you to search by address, neighborhood or zip code and it allows you to specify how many rooms etc. However they do not show you what the avg sale price.

Hope that's helpful.

E

Stuart M. · Answer

Yes, this is what I've realized, which is why I'm looking to find the "least worst" rent to price ratios to concentrate my efforts.  South Florida seems too big to be an expert in every area and analyze every house, I'm trying to narrow it down.

The problem is finding average rents, not average listed rents; then you analyze one deal, which might not be representative of the area, you're back to square one.  So I'm trying to find better data so I can run a lot of deals all at one time, or find someone that has.  There used to be "heat maps" on the internet of price/rent ratio, and they release the figures for the entire MSA down here, but no one has smaller areas calculated...

What are your investment strategies down here?

Brian Garrett · Answer

You have to study the neighborhoods and areas you are interested in.

See what properties are selling for and what they are renting for.

Then just run the numbers and analyze the deals.

I think you'll quickly find that South Florida is not really a cash flow market though.

Price to rent ratios are horrible and properties sell quickly and at premiums!

Michaela G. · Answer

Get a basic idea from trulia and zillow