Taking seriously the oldest known cliché in real estate, “Location, Location, Location”, the real estate investor in the 21st Century should be prepared to create an economic topographical map. Using data one can develop information about the direction of growth (known as the path of progress) and the rate at which rent decays in all directions away from an economic “central place”. Such a map would look like the one to the left. On this map the shallowest slope of rent decay away from the center is the direction of high rent persistence.

This analysis supplements the “driving around” or “windshield” methods of location selection, adding an objective element to site selection based on data.