Filtering based on demographics

[Oladimeji Sonibare]

Greetings, All,

I'm working on my first investment property, and, from what I've gathered from BP, the first step is to identify my market. Part of that includes assessing the demographics of the city/state I'd like to invest in, but I can't seem to find accurate/up-to-date information about demographics anywhere.

How do I screen cities for wage growth, crime, median income, etc.? Which sites can I trust?

I've been doing quick google searches until now, but I want to be as accurate as possible. A lot of sites have conflicting information. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Steven Foster Wilson]

Quote from @Greg M.:

Census.gov has a lot of info on cities. Has info on pop growth, age, percent of owners/renters, median mortgage/rent, income, economy... It's a good place to start to see if the area might be good to invest in. 

 I agree with Greg. I also like to look at where big businesses are trying to make their headquarters. They pay people to research different areas and look what the best area would be to invest in next. For example Intel, Amazon, the Limited, Chipotle, and more have chose to come to Columbus Ohio. Not to mention our appreciation has been 8% higher then the US national average, because of the high demand for affordable housing.