Predicting Area Growth

[Kyle Myers]

What are the best ways to predict or research potential growth of particular areas or neighborhoods?

For Example, If I was targeting a certain neighborhood is there a way to research if there are possible new attractions, big retailers, etc being planned for development, or maybe possible indicators to look out for that an old or run down part of town maybe target for developers to start revamping soon?

Even general growth direction such as 10-20 years ago knowing Collin county areas such as Frisco, Colony, Plano, etc.. north of Dallas would grow so much knowing all the planned developments of Dallas cowboys and Toyotas of the world, or does this type of stuff happen so quick relatively that you can't research with public records/websites until you starting physically seeing the development and having to make a judgement call at that point?