How to understand and analyze a Real Estate market

[Ogden Leyens]

I’m a recent college graduate who is looking to pursue a career in real estate investing (open to all types but would like to buy and hold commercial). After reading a couple books and listing to some BiggerPockets podcast episodes, a common theme for getting started is understanding your market. I’d like to pick a good market, but I have some questions with regards to choosing the “right” one.

How does someone research and understand a market?

What am I looking for when researching?

How can I find what I’m supposed to be looking for?

What tips or platforms would best be used to better my research?

Any information and/or guidance is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Yuechen Zhao]

Hi Ogden, in addition to what @Nicole Heasley Beitenman mentioned, you could also consider which markets look like they have the most potential for property value appreciation / rental income appreciation. Is your market land-constrained (Manhanttan) or is it relatively sprawling (Texas)? Are people moving into or out of the markets you're looking at? Is the economy growing, are people getting paid more over time? How has the real estate market responded to past recessions (e.g. 2008)? Is it recession proof or super recession sensitive? Are rents rising, and how does rent growth compare between markets you're analyzing?

You can find data points to answer the above questions online. US Census has a bunch of awesome data, and reicitydata.com shows you trends over time for common demographic and economic indicators across different cities.

Hope that helps!