Where do I research emerging markets?

Question

Chris Tracy · Answer

There's more to it than this, but these resources will point you in the right direction:

• Go to City-data.com.  Look for markets that have good population growth, increasing median household income and increasing median home value.  Check out the crime rate table.  Is the crime rate increasing or decreasing?  My team will often call the police station of an area, to get more granular with how safe an area is once we have an interest.
• Check out Zillow.com.  Does the market have a positive or negative forcast predicted for home values?
• Find out which states are "Landlord Friendly" w/ a simple Google search.
• Any jobs?  Check out www.deptofnumbers.com/employment/metros
• Use Google Maps and check out the area.  How does the neighborhood look?  Attractive?
• The above resources as mentioned are good and others include The Milken Report & Yardi Monthly Reports at yardimatrix.com

Good luck!

Andrew Cushman · Answer

@Danielle Friberg , my favorite thing to do is take the little yellow man from Google Maps, drag him into bad neighborhoods, and see if he gets robbed.  If so, stay away ;-)

@Chris Tracy mentioned a few good ones.  I use City-data on a regular basis, and deptofnumbers.com has great data as well.

Trulia.com can be good for crime maps, although you'll want to dig in a little deeper before you actually buy a property.

Since you posted in the multifamily forum, I'll post more resources that I use for apartments.  However, most of the info applies to rentals of almost any size:

Free Broker Research/Reports (sign up on the website or request from a broker):

CBRE, Marcus & Millichap, Berkadia, Cushman & Wakefield, Colliers

Those guys are national. Often the regional brokers will have reports specific to the metro they cover, which can also be very helpful.

Some Paid Ones: ALN, MPF Research, Axiometrics.

For the above, if you build relationships with brokers and property management companies they will usually be happy to forward you the reports for free.

Some newsletters, magazines, and the like that are useful:

Multifamily Executive, Bisnow, Units Magazine, NAA Industry Insider, and the various newsletters put out by the other sources listed above.  With Bisnow, you sign up to receive daily updates on whatever markets you choose.  I find it very helpful for keeping up with new job announcements, deals, trends, etc.

Finally, as @Todd Dexheimer mentioned, Dave Lindahl's book Emerging Markets is a good overview and I highly recommend it for learning the big picture.  However, the resources above, plus your tolerance for risk and travel, will help you determine where your next investment will be.

Good luck!

Andrew

Tom Chen · Answer

http://www.areadevelopment.com/

Maria M. · Answer

http://www.marcusmillichap.com

Andrew Campbell · Answer

Dept of numbers is a great source.

One thing not mentioned so far is the qualitative factors that go into your decision to invest out of state.  Are you going to be completely hands off/turn-key, or something you are more actively managing?  How easy will it be for you to get there?

I started by looking at the all cities I could get to in a 2-hour non-stop flight--then started researching and prioritizing within that window.  Even from a research/getting to know the market standpoint I want to be able to get there quickly and easily. From there, you can follow much of the advice in this thread to identify metrics around job, population growth, etc.

Good luck!

Todd Dexheimer · Answer

Check out Emerging real estate markets by David Lindahl for. Also, I posted an article recently on linked in. If you search my name you should be able to find it

Dan Voykin · Answer

Hi Danielle,

I talked to an Analyst at the BLS and he walked me through how to look at population growth (or decline) and employment numbers for a 10 year spread. This may help you see what is trending up, or down.  PM me and I can walk you through it.

Danielle Friberg · Answer

Thanks, Tim.

Where do I research emerging markets?

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