What statistics should I look at to see what area jobs will be created?

[farmerjohn1324]

I am interested in investing in apartment complexes. Given the right deal, any area can lead to a successful investment, but I would like to know what areas would be best on a macro- scale.

What statistics should I look at?

For example, there was recently two billion dollar plants built near Chattanooga, Tennessee. A Volkswagen plant and a foreign solar energy company.

What statistic will this increase in this area? Is it GDP (of the area)? Is it income per capita?

What easily defined quantitative statistic is increased by the action of creating these new billion dollar plants in this area?

[rising_star]

This seems like a request for homework help...

[Ganzi]

Yeah it does look like a homework question 

[farmerjohn1324]

No, not a homework question... I'm not in school...

Does anybody know the answer? I am trying to determine if I should try to buy real estate in a certain city and I want to know if this city will be economically healthy for years to come...

Other than expected population growth, what statistics should I look at that have to do with the amount of money in the cities economy?

And I am trying to look 10 - 20 years into the future.

[farmerjohn1324]

Does anyone know the answer to the question?

The only thing I know of currently is to look at projected population.

But I know there must be some statistic that has to do with the quantity of money in the area, or what is expected to be in the area that is the CAUSE of the population growth.

For example, Naples, FL is expected to grow because retirees move there because the area is very nice. Due to this, the Naples, FL real estate market will be "on fire" for decades most likely.

I'm just trying to QUANTIFY this into an easily readable statistic so that I can look up projections of this statistic.

Perhaps median home value?

Why do cities grow? What causes them to grow? In this case, Naples is growing because of it's climate... and this would lead me to believe that Florida as a whole is a good "bet," as would be Texas and California.

People like the Sun and warm winters.

Edited March 22, 2016 by farmerjohn1324