Market research tips

[Brendan Quinn]

Its hard Trying to decide on a location to invest in. Knowledge is power   

I can think of a few things that would be really useful for predicting an areas home values or rent in the future. Knowing things like median income for an area,  median rent , population growth, unemployment and investment of companies are some information that id like to research.  I need to decide to sell or hold and im wondering if anyone can reccomend the resources or techniques to research the things i mentioned?

also any recommendations on what else I should consider. What helps you determine if an area will have rising property values in the short term or long term? 

Any websites or tools??