Rental rate maps? How to learn rental rates in your city...

[Chuck B.]

I'm trying to get a good idea on rental rates for various types of properties (MF vs SF, total rooms, etc.) in my city. Some areas I know well, others are a giant, black hole in my mind.

All of the online sites make it easy to produce geographic maps with SALE prices and SOLD prices, etc.

However, where does one go to pull together a RENTAL RATE map? Pouring through Craigslist ads just doesn't produce a picture and the idea of typing all of that information in is just a no-go. I've looked at some other sites and most don't seem to have enough rentals to produce a clear picture.

How do you do rental rate research?

Best,
- C

[Kyle Meyers]

There are a few sites that map craigslist ads:

http://www.mapskrieg.com/view/
http://www.housingmaps.com/

I think you can make your own also, this post inspired me to try. I am using excel combined with craigslist rss. Some information to get started here:

http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-excel/archive/2010/10/12/pulling-rss-data-into-excel-or-using-excel-to-search-craigslist-part-1.aspx
http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-excel/archive/2010/10/22/pulling-rss-data-into-excel-or-using-excel-to-search-craigslist-part-2.aspx

The articles aren't specifically for rentals, so I am trying to customize the search and results info right now for my use. I will try to post the finished spreadsheet once I finish it.

Any spreadsheet can be made into a map at http://batchgeo.com/