Real Estate Data and Market Analysis Resources

[John D.]

What advice do you have on doing real estate market research? Where to find analysis/data and what tools are available. I want to research data on national home sales with the view of identifying how different regions are affected by market bubbles, property pricing ranges, and employment trends. And taxes. Almost forgot that little guy. My work moves me around the country so I will be an out of state investor. Therefore the broad search to pick an investment area. While writing this I am realizing that I need to consider tax and llc considerations between states also. I am guessing that I can find some of this info in census data. May be a real estate agent? Any recommendations on how to pick a state are welcome. I intend to buy and rent property.

[Joe Funari]

@John D. There are several public, and non-public data sources I can share with you here in Texas. One great public source is the Texas Real Estate Commision (TREC) works with Texas A&M to pull all the home sales data from every MLS in the state. Tracks it by city, by month, by year. Phenomenal data if you know where to look. Also a great tool I have used to protest property taxes on my rentals each year. There are some other resources we realtors have access to that will make even an engineer go giddy with all the data analysis these reports do for a specific property. Per census data 2500 people are moving to the Dallas/Ft.Worth area each week. Rent occupancies are running at 5% vacancies. In short we can't keep up with demand for quality rentals. This is a good area to invest for many years to come. I would be happy to share more with you. Just send me a PM and lets connect. But DFW area should be one of the areas you invest.

[John D.]

@Joe Funari Thanks.  That is exactly the type of information that I am looking for.  I am assuming that the growth is being driven by employment opportunities.  I have read a lot of good things about Texas.

[Joe Funari]

@John D. Yes, several corporations have moved their corporate offices to the DFW area. Low cost of living. No state income taxes, and unemployment below national average. I am sure there are other reasons too. But those are the main ones.

[John D.]

For anyone else with the same question, I found some national housing analysis articles from the following sources.
Zillow: http://zillow.mediaroom.com/index.php
Frannie Mae: http://www.fanniemae.com/portal/research-insights/research-insights-overview.html
Freddie Mac: http://www.freddiemac.com/research/
US Census: https://www.census.gov/topics/housing.html