I wanted to share the results of the deep dive with whoever might be interested in neighborhood retail or macro-trends. 

When doing a top-down market analysis, you want to look at fundamental supply and demand characteristics: healthy and growing population base, demographic trends, diversified employment sectors (so if one industry goes down–like the auto industry in Detroit–the whole town doesn't go down with it), talented and educated workforce.

Trends.

Trick is having someone you trust to walk the house. 

However, active listings in Austin and the metro area were down by 27% and 26% respectively, continuing the recent downward trend.

I do think MFH has the benefit of being supported by several long term demographic trends so I'm very bullish long term.

I am an old dog but not afraid of new tricks.

Listing on Zillow will get you on Zillow/Trulia/Hotpads, and like @Justin M.mentioned, adding a Zumper listing should do the trick. 

These tend to be boutique firms that are either local or regional.50+ you start to get into more of the national players: CBRE, Cushman Wakefield, etc.These are general trends I see in the midwest, but price is also a factor. 

I would do the burbs right now, as I think the population trend will go that way.