Real Estate Investor · Topeka, KS · Member since 2010 · 63 posts · 40 votes
Hi,
I am trying to make a "benchmark" of various states and metro areas with the Price - to - Rent Ratio.
It is quite easy to find median or average house prices for each state or even metro (for example using in trulia), but I am having hard times to find such statistics about median or average rents.
Has anybody done similar research? Are there some good websites with rental statistics? Or do I have to wait for the results of the 2010 Census. :D
Oh the joy of searching for rent averages... The best way I found to set a basis was to run through local craigslist/thrifty nickel ads to see what the rates were on average and to look up the Section 8 rent tables for the city I was researching.
You can find these Section 8 tables on the HUD website. They show "rent reasonable" pricing and you can pretty much figure that Section 8 is paying around 25% above open market.
Oh the joy of searching for rent averages... The best way I found to set a basis was to run through local craigslist/thrifty nickel ads to see what the rates were on average and to look up the Section 8 rent tables for the city I was researching.
You can find these Section 8 tables on the HUD website. They show "rent reasonable" pricing and you can pretty much figure that Section 8 is paying around 25% above open market.
I know rentometer, and it's simple to use (without the need of filling too many details), but it will show the average rent only for a certain zipcode, so if I need to do average for a whole city or even state, it is not useful.
Craigslist won't be the way to go either, since I would have to search rents for each city and then make some averages for a state etc.
I might try the section 8 statistics, if they have some average data there, it could be useful. If they are in average 25% above the market, and if this is in general all around US, then it will be fine.
Otherwise I might just wait till the next year, to see the Census 2010 data.
If you google HUD statistics by MSA there will be a few good sources. I believe Curtis was referring to a site like this: www.huduser.org/datasets/metro.html
I found that rents vary quite dramatically within some MSA (specifically the Raleigh-Cary MSA) even when holding property characteristics (sq.ft., bedroom count, property age, etc.) constant. I guess it depends on what your use is for the data.
haven't been around for a while. However I decided to at least post an update to this thread, because I have finally put together the "benchmark" of all the US states with the price to rent ratio and the gross rental yield. I thought it might be interesting especially for the people who gave me the advices in this thread.
If there would be an interest, I can possibly write a blog post about how I did the calculations etc. Let me know.
John , I checked out your website and registered. tried out your free analysis and believe it could be extremely useful to many here. I would like to see some of the more experienced investors check it out and give their input. when i have more time i will go back and learn more about your analysis tool. thanks and i will look for your blog.
I have created a Blog here and wrote about how I got the data and how I exactly calculated the Price to rent ratio and rental yields. If you would have ideas how to make the numbers more accurate, let me know and I can always recalculate it.
(I wasn't sure if "Article" or "Blog" is better, but it seemed that in the article I wouldn't be able to use pictures).
Originally posted by Michael Lauther:
John , I checked out your website and registered. tried out your free analysis and believe it could be extremely useful to many here. I would like to see some of the more experienced investors check it out and give their input. when i have more time i will go back and learn more about your analysis tool. thanks and i will look for your blog.
Thanks Michael! I am glad you liked the tool. I have developed it also with a help of a few investors here at Biggerpockets, but then I promised to Josh that I won't be starting new threads about it. I will be happy if you will use it and recommend to other investors. You can also send me suggestions or request new features.