At times, certain towns have more crime in particular parts of the town vs other, as a law enforcement I have seen and well aware of the towns that are safer than others, can get access to stats. 

:-)   In terms of particular areas that often "light up" as bad areas but are worth examining, I'd probably list Brewerytown, Port Richmond, Kensington, Grays Ferry, Point Breeze, Kingsessing, and NW Philly.  

Most large office copiers have telematics chips inside them that record stats leading to being able to get an analysis of how much toner and electric is being consumed by the copier coupled with the ability to price an individual raw sheet of A4 paper so you should be able to arrive at a precise figure but you are not accounting for wastages here.

The stats I gave for rentals are for actually leased townhomes and condominiums.

we are just going back 200 years in building techniques.With the rise of Uber who needs cars.. there is some scary stats in Oregon how uber and the like is crushing the cab business..

I'm learning about contract assignments but not sure how this can work with the "original parties...remain obligated hereunder" clause.Also, Section 30, on Defaults, states that a defaulting Buyer may be liable for actual damages, and "will immediately pay the costs incurred for the title examination, Appraisal, survey, and the Broker's Fee in full"Arghhhhhh!!!!!

I'm curious if there are any stats on who is buying the new homes.

I look foward to chatting with some of you.Cheers,Shawn :)Welcome to the forum mate,I always stress to every foreign investor to focus more on the people rather than the stats/demographics of an area or a deal.Establishing the right relationships with key people here in the US will either make or brake your investments.Thanks and much success

Try to plan a week vacation so you really have time to examine the city, as you'll have a lot to do while you're in town.

Also are there any up-to date reliable websites  (may be county based government websites) that list the future development projects in a given zipcode/county.I found http://www.bestplaces.net/housing/city , which gives some stats ( no roadmap  for future development projects though) but looks like this is based on 2014 info.