Technique for comparing city rental markets

[Account Closed]

Hey Bigger pockets,

I'm working on a project to use data to compare US cities rental markets. Please take a look and let me know what you think.  I am using the following categories:

• 1 Yr Job Growth
• 3 Yr Job Growth
• Current Unemployment Rate
• 1 Yr Unemployment Rate Growth
• 3 Yr Unemployment Rate Growth
• 1 Yr Median Income Growth
• 3 Yr Median Income Growth
• Current Gross Median Rent
• 1 Yr Gross Median Rent Growth
• 3 Yr Gross Median Rent Growth
• 1 Yr Population Growth
• 3 Yr Population Growth
• Current % Rent vacancy
• Current % renters
• Current Affordability (% people paying less than 35% income to rent)
• Current Median owner occupied home value
• 1 Yr growth median owner occupied home value
• 3 Yr growth median owner occupied home value
• Current Rent to Price (median gross rent / median owner occupied home value)

For each metric, I look at what's average and what's best. The average cities are given no points, and the best are awarded 100% points. I then add the points from each category and rank the cities. An average city would get zero points and the best would have the most. Some categories are worth more points than others.

Am I missing anything? Am I looking at too much economic data? Which categories are more important than others?

[Joe Villeneuve]

Current % Rent vacancy

Current % renters

After reviewing your list a number of times, the two items above are the only two I use when analyzing a rental market.  The rest of the items would give me info that I wouldn't know what to do with...nor do I really care about.  The reason is this.  The two items above are "results" numbers, meaning what "did" or "has" happened.  The rest of the list are "speculation" numbers, meaning I would use those numbers to speculate what "might happen if"...as in "guessing".

Here is my list, added to the two above

• What is the Profile I'm looking for, and how many properties match it in a Market.
• Find the Micro-Markets within the Markets based on the Profile Criteria.  This could (and usually will) show up as pockets across a Market.
• Average rent in the specific Micro-Market(s) (not the overall market).  This could be as small as 4 square blocks.  Ignore the "Gauge" in Rentometer.  Look exclusively at the "candlesticks", and the relationship of those candlesticks to the market.  This is one of the tools that defines a Micro-Market.  
• Standard expenses per month (i.e...taxes, insurance, property manager etc...)
• What my minimum Net Cash Flow needs to be....and DON'T ACCEPT LESS.
• What the cost to buy is in that Micro-Market.  
• What rehab I'm willing to do in that Micro-Market...and what the typical cost would be