Large companies and rental/real estate prices

[Eugene Lee]

Hi BP! 

So I'm in the process of identifying real estate markets I'd like to be in as of 2017, and I'm running into, not an issue but something I hope will be an interesting discussion. I currently reside in San Diego in UTC where we have ucsd (go Tritons, still undefeated) as well as Illumina, a large provider of DNA sequencers. Illumina I swear builds a new building a year and Ucsd is so packed that the joke is that we might get quadruples in our dorm rooms and as a result, I'm seeing the opportunity of rent and appreciation gains in the immediate area. 

I'm wondering how similar is this mechanism for other, out of state areas. For example, FedEx out of Memphis, TN is absolutely killing it (thanks Amazon!) and I'm bullish on the transports over the long haul. The thing is though, because I'm not there, I'm left to resort to economic and population forecasts by "expert analysts", which I'd rather not rely on too much. In that sense, how valuable of a metric would you say is following the movements of large companies in order to identify upcoming markets?