The area can also come into play but this is also subjective as you can have a class A building in a B,C or even D area.So all that being said it is first and foremost the age and condition of the building followed by the area and demographics of the population.

When i travel to areas with heavy low end rental populations pitts are very common..

I also should be about a year out (maybe less) from having 20% equity in the home and being able to drop PMI, which would add +$71, thus putting me more in the positive at +$111/moThe area sees steady growth, very populated, 5 miles from RDU international airport, tons of shopping, etc.

I like the strategy of buying in cities with a steady job and population growth.

Population growth 2.

Many cities expect population to rise up to 50% in the next 5 years. 

Kansas City has shown great population growth, job growth, median HH income growth, and crime is on a downward trend.

Seems like you have a good grasp on market research, nonetheless here are a few metrics you can add to your search: - rental vacancy rate  - homeowner vacancy rate  - poverty rate - education attainment rate (high school/GED & Bachelors)   - number of housing unit - household income - rent to income ratio - rent to price ratio - population on SNAPS (supplemental nutrition assistance program) percentage  - prop tax rate  - median age of buildings - number of structures by units (SFR, duplex, tri, quad, etc

It's a choropleth map of Austin neighborhoods and their corresponding median home values:Seems like the further outside the city center you go the less expensive it become with the notable exception of the west side.As for assessing future neighborhood growth, I would look at trend data for various metrics such as population counts, educational attainment, poverty rate, household incomes, etc ...  

I like Kingston bc it has a high percentage of the population that rents and an overall low vacancy rate.