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Price to rent ratio for every zip code in the US


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2012 Feb 1, 5:02am   31,917 views  60 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (60)   💰tip   ignore  

Just for kicks, I plotted the average price vs average rent for every zip code in the US from my mostly-Craigslist data set of 4.5 million points.

Pretty cool, but I'm not sure what it means except that there is basically a linear relationship.

Please copy this graph and use it where ever you want, as long as you keep the http://patrick.net URL in the image.

Here's the gnuplot commands I used:

set term gif
set output "price_to_rent.gif"
set size 0.8, 0.8
set label 'From http://patrick.net' at graph 0.01, graph 0.08
set xlabel "Average price in zip code"
set ylabel "Average rent in zip code"
set xrange [0:800000]
set yrange [0:3000]
set title "Average price vs average rent by zip code"
plot "price_to_rent.txt" using 2:3 notitle pt 0

Anyone know how to make the text of the url label lighter, or how to put commas and $ marks on the rents and prices?

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55   Patrick   2012 Feb 15, 8:23am  

I took statistics in German in Munich and didn't really absorb much.

bmwman91 says

So, Patrick:
a) Can we get the same data, but with the medians of both?
b) Would it be possible to have an additional column with the 2-letter state code corresponding to the zip code?
c) Do you have some monstrous database with data for every rent listing and recorded sale that you pull this from?

I don't know an easy way to get medians from my database.

I could pretty easily put the 2-letter state code because I can just join with my zip code table.

Yes, I have a monstrous database with data for every rent and asking price from Craigslist for about a year.

56   bmwman91   2012 Feb 15, 8:28am  

SFace says

Then there is still the issue of median rent and median sale is not the same thing.

This is true. Really, it seems like the only proper data set to work with would be one comprised of raw sales prices and rent values. Sampling methodology is a huge factor, and unless EVERY single sale & rental are taken, all sorts of sampling-related issues could mask trends and cause false ones to appear.

I have the x64 version of JMP & 16GB of RAM...I probably COULD work on the entire set of raw data. My gut feeling is that there is going to be some sort of correlation between price and rent without the masking effects of averaging or median filtering. Oh yeah, confirmation bias...about that, lol.

57   bmwman91   2012 Feb 15, 8:31am  


I could pretty easily put the 2-letter state code because I can just join with my zip code table.

Yes, I have a monstrous database with data for every rent and asking price from Craigslist for about a year.

Shoot me an email if you want to see what we can glean from the data. I know that this is sort of Patrick-proprietary stuff since you make a living off the site, so maybe we could make something interesting to share with readers without giving everyone all of your data.

JMP can access databases and stuff, so we wouldn't necessarily need to email monstrous text files.

58   Patrick   2012 Feb 15, 9:14am  

Another complicating factor is that I don't actually have sales prices, just asking prices. Wish I did.

Asking rents are less of a problem, because the landlord usually gets exactly what he's asking.

bmwman91 says

Shoot me an email if you want to see what we can glean from the data. I know that this is sort of Patrick-proprietary stuff since you make a living off the site, so maybe we could make something interesting to share with readers without giving everyone all of your data.

OK, I'll mail you.

59   Bap33   2012 Feb 15, 10:18am  

In my area I would LOVE to have the number of homes, apparts, commer, and land held by the same persons and groups. And how many of the individuals that hold rentals are also members of groups that hold rentals ..... and their financial history (forclosure, BR, ShortSales, ect) .... just a dream, I know.

60   Aus1   2012 Feb 15, 8:00pm  

Personally I think that this sort of information would be very useful. The other graph that I think would be great is rent vs the tenant is likely/not likely to destroy your investment property/not pay the rent graph.

Or

Price vs rental rate as it's no point buying a investment if you can't rent it out.

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