COMMERCIAL INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE
20 September | October 2017
C
ommercial real estate is space for people to work in,
live in, shop in, and store things in. As a result, compe-
tent commercial real estate professionals rely on a basic
understanding of the demographics and economics
associated with their local market. The typical high-level defini-
tion of a market is a county or a metropolitan statistical area.
Analyzing Demographics
The first step is to create a benchmark demographics style
report using Census QuickFacts, which starts with the U.S. at
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/. Take Lakeland, Fla., in
Polk County as an example. Enter the formal geographies in
descending order — state, county, and city.
The resulting report provides 72 lines of data and 13 categories
in a contextual setting, increasing the meaning of individual
data points by comparison to increasingly larger units of formal
geography. As an example, the population of Polk County rose
by 10.6 percent from April 2010 to July 2016, compared to 4.7
percent for the U.S. overall. Also, Polk County is growing about
10 percent faster than the state of Florida.
In addition to data about housing and households, median
household income, mean travel time to work, and data about the
economy and businesses is included. Finally, the U.S. Census has
information about the size and density of the geography.
Evaluating Employment
It also is important to understand employment in the MSA. The
Bureau of Labor Statistics Economy at a Glance report provides
an excellent overview at the North American Industry Classifi-
cation System Super Sector level at https://www.bls.gov/eag/.
Again use Florida and Polk County as the case study and look
at the report for Florida at https://www.bls.gov/regions/
southeast/florida.htm#eag.
Employment on line 2 is household survey employment, which
is the number of people who live in the geography and have
a job. Refer to https://www.bls.gov/bls/empsitquickguide.
htm#household.
Total nonfarm is listed as payroll or establishment survey
employment, which refers to the number of people who work
at businesses that are in Florida at https://www.bls.gov/bls/ Roy
Scott/Getty
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TECHNOLOGY
S O LU T I O N S
Powerful Tools
Great tools for analyzing local markets are free and easy-to-use.
by Gary Ralston, CCIM, CPM, SIOR