Predicting City Growth - What Trends & Data Matter?

[Ben Hofstra]

Hey everybody, I am planning to buy my first investment property in the form of a house hack in the next year and a half. My current goal is to narrow down areas to look at so that I can start paying closer attention to those markets. I have been looking at factors that affect where I would like to live (weather, politics, taxes, night life, etc.) but I am guessing that these don't necessarily indicate a good financial investment. It seems that future growth would mean a good investment. What trends do y'all use to predict future growth? And what factors other than future growth would impact whether or not a market is good to invest in or not?

[Evan Hopple]

@Ben Hofstra

Job/population growth are key indicators for long term growth. The trick is finding a market that has future growth along with a high rent to price ratio. It's easy to find a hot market. Finding one with positive cashflow is a different story. 

I live/invest in Columbus, OH. We have huge growth to come from recent additions to the tech sector (google, intel, amazon, honda, and many start ups). Plans to were announced last month to invest $2B into the cities airport in anticipation of the population/business travel growth.