OOS Investing, Questions about different data - What do you pull?

[Matt Corso]

I am diving into the research for my first out of state investment property. My goal right now is to narrow my options down to a couple different Metros before really diving into those Metros for specific neighborhoods. I have been pulling the basics but because these last two years have been rather tumultuous, the data is hard to rely on. But I have been pulling the following:

1) Fortune 500 Companies within the Metro Area (I'd love a better metric for determining job markets if you have one!)

2) Median Home Price

3) 10 year Appreciation and 1 year Appreciation (I can't locate a reliable 30 year Appreciation dataset)

4) Average 2 BR rent and 3 BR rent

5) Cost of Living

6) Median Household Income

What other data sets do you generally rely on when looking at areas to OOS invest? I had started with Crime and Unemployment but the numbers were all quite similar to each other - I ended up moving these to my neighborhood spreadsheets.

How are you utilizing something like Median Income and Cost of Living to inform your decision?

What websites are you using for the most up-to-date reliable data? I have been using citydata and bestplaces but their numbers are outdated, IMO.

All of the insight is appreciated!