The trend is very interesting.  

Hey everyoneI do not know if anyone has discussed the coliving trend that some companies are betting on.

Katy is one of the hottest areas in the Houston area with probably the best schools in the state.

While it's a bit of a sales pitch for his newsletter, I like that he makes use of data from his 5 "vital signs" (Existing home sales, New home building permits, Mortgage loan defaults, Foreclosure sales, Interest rates)  to quantify trends rather than relying on the media and gut feeling to gauge the state of the market.Narrowing down to 5 indicators is maybe an over-simplification, since circumstances will vary in every market, but I like the idea of being able to chart some key indicators and make discussions of where the market might be heading more tangible and less emotional.Is this type of analysis a worthwhile part of a real estate investor's toolkit?

@Pete Mathias  There is alot of investors flooding to the area driving up prices but strong trends to support the market has room to grow even more because od job growth, low vacancy, and still very low cost of living and rent rates compared to other metro areas.  

Publicly traded REIT's follow the stock market and can expect stock market type returns, while direct investments follow real estate trends and neighborhood trends.Now for direct investing, we are talking about buying an asset on your own.

Any advice on the Atlanta, GA market trends specifically would help tremendously!

There are two different approaches when it comes to rehab quality, markets, trends, time management, consumers of your product, and an entire host of other factors.

We move somewhat frequently, every 2 years or so, so we always look to buy a cosmetic fixer with some room for sweat equity in areas that we do our best to research are going to maintain current value or (hopefully) appreciate due to trends, schools, walkability, incoming commercial investment and perceived desirability. 

Thomas Hickey I’ll second what Ola mentioned about analyzing properties and a common trend appearing.