An Easy Way to Find Trending Locations in Real Estate

Have you ever asked yourself, how can I find the best new trending area to live?

Many wonder how they can locate the most sought after neighborhoods locally or if relocating.

Some may be simply looking for their new place to invest.

How do you find places that are emerging and showing signs of growth?

Well, let’s get into it…

Today, we will review a simple but effective way to determine where the most sought out areas are.

Let’s get started.

Metrics that Matter

Before you get all caught up in reading newsletters and using media outlets to tell you where the markets are hot, get familiar with the metrics that tell the story.

• In our articles Learn What “Location, Location, Location…” Really Means in Real Estate and How to Evaluate Emerging Markets in Real Estate, we go over plenty of techniques you should add to your arsenal.

Some of these metrics are:

• Population Growth
• Employment Growth
• Income Growth
• Increasing Median Home Values
• Improving Crime Trends

Identify these metrics, and you’ve found a place that is emerging.

Knowing how and where to access data points are important.

However, there is an easier way as well!

It may be a little more tedious, depending on how many areas you want to research, but hear me out…

When you are trying to find the best location, its not just about a city.

That’s way too broad!

You need to know the details down to the neighborhood.

You need this detail by zip code at least!

Finding Trending Areas Down to the Zip Code

Yep, you need data by the zip code and you need it now!

So, here’s how you can find trending locations down to the zip code…

1. Go to USPS.com and use the feature for Look Up a ZIP Code>ZIP Code by City and State.
   • Enter your desired city, state and you’ll get all the zip codes for that city.
2. Use a tool like Microsoft Excel to document all your zip codes and to set up all your other data points to follow.
   • Microsoft Excel is just a tool to organize and record your data in a chart format. You can document as you see fit.
3. Go to City-Data.com to begin collecting your next data points for each zip code.
   • You will use each zip code in your list as the search criteria to enter into City-Data.com.
   • Enter the zip code in the search field on the City-Data.com home page and then look for the zip codes most current population, the previous population for 10 and/or 20 years prior, the most current median house/condo value and the previous median house/condo value from 10 and/or 20 years prior.
     • Note: At times only the population data may be available. But that is enough to show you the trends if the median house/condo value isn’t available.
     • You should have anywhere from four to six data columns now.
       • Most Recent Population
       • Population 10 Years Ago
       • Population 20 Years Ago
       • Most Recent Median Home/Condo Value
       • Median Home/Condo Value 10 Years Ago
       • Median Home/Condo Value 20 Years Ago
4. Next, you will need to add a few new data columns to gather your percentages.
   • Add the following column titles.
     • Percentage Change in Population from 10 Years Ago and Currently.
     • Percentage Change in Population from 20 Years Ago and Currently.
     • Percentage Change in Median Home/Condo Value from 10 Years Ago and Currently.
     • Percentage Change in Median Home/Condo Value from 10 Years Ago and Currently.
       • This is why Microsoft Excel is a great option. You can simply enter the formulas to deliver you the percentage differences for each of these columns. This, I cannot teach you in this article, but I’ll do a YouTube tutorial if I get enough requests!
5. Be sure to get all your data completed for each column category.
6. Use the sorting feature in Microsoft Excel, rank your columns accordingly to get the zip codes with the highest percent change in population over 10 or 20 years and the highest percent change for median home/condo values over the last 10 or 20 years.

The highest percentage changes are the most sought out locations in that city by zip code.

You can still go and add more data to what you’ve already collected, like school rankings, crime trends, employment options, transportation and many others.

• Learn more about what additional information you can add to your search by reading, Learn What “Location, Location, Location…” Really Means in Real Estate and How to Evaluate Emerging Markets in Real Estate.

Conclusion

It may require use of a tool like Microsoft Excel to make the task easier to complete or you can hire a freelancer (or virtual assistant) to complete the search for you from Fiverr.

Regardless, you now have a way to identify the most sought out areas.

Wherever population is increasing, there is a definite demand there.

Find your areas of attraction today using these tools!

Thanks for joining us today faithful readers – future leaders.

Love ya and continue to strive to exceed expectations.

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Please comment the ways you find trending locations.