Metropolitan statistical area.

Yep, that's the misleading statistic with all these stories.....they define "profit" by the difference between the purchase price and selling price....no regard for renovation hard costs, let alone holding and selling costs.  

I am a project engineer working for a national developer.  We are doing some research on finding the average on time completion percentage for multifamily projects over $20 million dollars.  For example, 92% of multif...

Yeah, Demand Appreciation can really be your secret to finding an ROI; however, you have to do your research as stated up above by the other posters in this thread.You can look at the yearly statistics on appreciation in the boston areas and try to get as specific (neighborhood by neighborhood) that you can get with those stats.

@Paul Gupta-- I'm also interested to see where you are getting these market statistics from.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average worker hops to a new job every 4.4 years. 

Example Have 1 DB full of all sorts of house statistics and another full of water readings (I do know that one DB can handle mind numbing amounts of data but we are talking global domination here).

I've seen vacancy statistics for apartment buildings but not including single family homes.

Disparate-impact claims challenge practices of housing providers that have a disproportionately adverse effect on minorities.Relying on statistical evidence presented by ICP, the District Court concluded that ICP successfully established a prima facie case of disparate impact.

You do not have to become a believer in modern portfolio theory (I am not) but you are not educated if you don’t know it exists and how influential it has become - its tenets (not tenants) literally percolate through much of what you see written in the popular press about investing, retirement strategies, diversification, etc.Statistics - A one semester or one quarter course in statistics will serve you very well all your life, and open your eyes to a deeper understanding of probability and risk.Accounting - You really do need to have a conceptual understanding of what balance sheets, cash flow statements and profit and loss means.