city-data.com should have a lot of what you're looking for.Bureau of Labor Statistics should have a good bit as well.

Then actually walk the talk and go explore, look at houses to better understand your market, look at statistics, etc.

Elizaveta Voloboeva Statistics regarding real estate on a national or even a state and city basis are useful but can be misleading when it comes to a local market.

It is often independent and makes / enforces its own rules and regulations.

Respectfully, I'll have to disagree.I've spent most of the afternoon and much of the evening looking (on line) into the neighborhoods that are within my childs school zone...Literally, I've spent almost an entire day on this specific area of my investigation....looking up each and every single neighborhood....As of this hour, there are only two neighborhoods I cannot find information on.The statistics you pulled are certainly interesting...and actually very different than what I would have expected them to be.

Caution: Don't take the wholesalers opinion of value into consideration, have independent verification of values!

The above post has a great list to go on for checking values, but I also like to check out the neighborhood with city-data.com and a couple other statistics sites.

By that I mean construction inspections for accounting and disbursements verified independently.

It's hard to diversify in RE as a beginner if your not already independently wealthy.Investing can consume as little or as much time as you choose.

The subs/general contratctors you are getting your quotes from you should ask them about their time line as most in that area are busy with Sandy work and do to the amount of work that is available to them they are somewhat independent.