Market Analysis - Stuck in Mud, Plz Help!!!

[Logan Parrette]

Hi All!,

I'm hoping there is some guidance on where I'm at right now. I'm ready to pull the trigger on purchasing my first investment property and feel like I am stuck at the infant stage of analyzing the market I have in my sights!

I've read and watched so much content on this stage and I still feel like I've made no progress. I've referenced a half-dozen books on the topic too, including BP's, and it seems like the market analysis advice is all similar and kept surface-level.

I see common themes of looking at the affordability, job growth, unemployment rate, disparity, migration, supply and demand, etc., yet these still feel so empty to me. I feel like I'm not actually analyzing anything or going deep enough into the market I'm looking at. I'm utilizing tons of suggested resources like city-data, Census Bureau, local news and property managers, zillow/redfin, rentometer, DOL, Dept. of Numbers, and the likes.

I'm also finding difficulty in making an educated decision because the area is so small. It has a population of 8600ppl. A lot of market analysis content I'm finding seems to be geared towards large cities. Although, the math doesn't necessarily change when it comes to rules of thumbs for the analysis, I find it incredibly difficult to see, say, 20%(+,-) in anything when it's such a small sample size.

Am I making this harder than it needs to be? Is there any insight you can provide as to what I'm missing, etc.? 

Happy to provide any additional information that would be helpful too. Really...any guidance is graciously invited! Thanks all!!! :)