Newbie Analysis Question

[Andy Vasquez]

I live in Washington DC. I want to rent out my home and purchase a second home. My goal is to accumulate Cash Flow (it's an ambitious number) over time and after 5 years take that Cash Flow and invest in something bigger.

My first question is when you do analysis, do you start with a city (to forecast growth) and then look at the property, or look at the property and then analyze the property?

When doing analysis on an area to invest in, I can think of looking at the following metrics. What am I missing?

-Population trends

-Unemployment %

-Median/mean house cost

-Avg. rent vs. avg. purchase cost 

-Available inventory