Success Strategies: Using the Internet to Research Emerging Markets
By Charles Warnock
When researching emerging or out-of-state markets, it pays to know your way around the Internet. You can find companies that will aggregate property values, neighborhood and demographic data for you for a fee, but you can also compile the same data with a few hours of Internet research.
One of the major indicators of an emerging market is job growth and economic development. To learn more about a particular area or town, your first stop should be the local government or town website. First off, simply visiting the town Website and doing a quick overview is a good indication of whether or not the local government has its act together. Some town Websites will be a goldmine of information and some will make you wonder why they even bother to put up a site.
For example, let's say you're interested in the Fort Lauderdale, Florida metro area, specifically smaller towns located within the area. One town that's been growing and adding new jobs is Plantation, and a visit to the town Website (www.plantation.org) pays off as you'll find a wealth of information about the town's economic development, demographics, and beautification programs:
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Economic Development
- Clicking on this tab, you can read about the Plantation Technology Park. As an interested investor, you should note the number of acres, the types of business located in the Park, and its location in the town itself. (If possible, have a map available where can you mark items of interest such as technology parks, schools, and the like.)
In addition, you can download the Plantation Technology Park Neighborhood Plan Report put out by a task force whose goal is to make the park more competitive in the marketplace and improve it economically and aesthetically. You can most likely find a number of relevant treasures of information in this report.
Then, when you visit the town, you'll know what to look for when you drive the grid. Where is the Park located? What are the surrounding neighborhoods like? Is the Park thriving or in decline? Is it easy to get on and off the highway?
When researching a town, don't be afraid to call the City Planners and ask them about the town's economic plan and business outlook. Also ask for the town's Annual Report (some towns still print these or make them available online) and/or annual budget. Look to see if local services are well funded, including trash collection, water, fire, police, schools, and the library.
Demographics - Looking at the demographics page, you'll note that household income (HHI) is higher than the HHI for the general county and that homes are valued at $70K to $1 million. This indicates Plantation is possibly an affluent town (you would have to compare numbers to other towns in the area and across the U.S.) and that a high number of professionals may live in the area.
Beautification Programs - In addition, the Plantation Website indicates the town has a program to help people purchase and repair a home. If you're crunching numbers and you qualify, this program can give you a whole different set of numbers.
Plantation also has a nifty Street Tree Program where the town will share the cost of planting a tree with homeowners and plant it, too. Also note the town received a state grant for upgrading and beautifying a road. Again, this indicates Plantation is most likely affluent and that the town government has a vested interest in town neighborhoods and infrastructure - which definitely helps keep property values high.
To find property information, hop on over to a town's county website. For Plantation, this is Broward County, Florida. Although the site offers lots of great information concerning the county's economic development and other noteworthy items, a link to the Appraiser's office isn't readily available. A quick Google search takes you to the Broward Country Property Appraiser Website where you can download a great deal of information, including tax rates and the assessed values of specific properties.
When doing your research, you'll also want to visit the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) website. Here you'll find all kinds of regulatory information, potential investing landmines, and real estate buying and selling guides.
Also take time to visit the U.S. Census Bureau. Look for the search box at the top of the home page where you can run a quick search of a community name and state.
Typing in "Plantation, Florida" returns a detailed fact sheet that shows population demographics, average household size, HHI, number of families living below the poverty level, and housing characteristics, including total housing units, owner versus renter occupied units, and even the median value of owner-occupied homes. The fact sheet also includes links to ranking data. For example, Plantation ranks pretty high for HHI when compared to other cities.
Going back to the Census Bureau home page and doing a search via the Population Trends counter shows the town of Plantation is growing - by over 3,000 people in the last three years.
Don't forget to look at school information, which unfortunately can be fragmented and hard to find online. Instead of relying on state test scores, which really don't indicate anything except how many kids passed the test, look for SAT scores, how many people in the town graduated from high school, and the percentage that went on to college. Look for student-teacher ratios, class sizes, the programs offered (or the programs which have been cut) and then factor in the state test scores.
Don't forget to read local publications, which you can find by searching Google. Local and metropolitan newspapers give you the complete picture that you can't get from town and county Websites.
And finally, you must, at some point, visit the town and neighborhood. Go to the prospective neighborhood at different times of the day and pay attention to traffic patterns, noise, and the number of airplanes flying overhead (which could indicate the neighborhood lies within an airport flight path). Be sure to visit at night, too. What does the neighborhood look and feel like? Are people walking around, enjoying leisurely strolls, or is it scary quiet and tense?
Doing your homework online is a great way to jump-start your research when long-distance investing. Build your market database by collecting information from local, county, and federal government Websites. A few hours research can easily save you a great deal of money and time down the road.
Charles Warnock is Director of Marketing for eNeighborhoods.com, a division of Dominion Enterprises. Based in Boca Raton, FL, the company provides competitive market analyses and other market data to real estate professionals. You can contact eNeighborhoods at 877-363-4442 or visit the company's website at www.eneighborhoods.com.
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