Investing in Small Towns in Rural Areas
Unfortunately, small rural areas do not have enough transactions each quarter to create a statistically valid sample size. In general, they follow the trends of nearby larger markets.
HousingAlerts.com is a top-level market analysis tool - it answers the most important question of "when & where" you should invest. Once you know the state of the market and it's cycle, only then can you decide:
1) If you should even be in that market
2) What particular investing tactics, strategies and methods should you use (ie - wholesaling vs. buy & hold, vs lease option, etc.)
In order for TA to work, we use a dead-accurate repeat home sale data base. That means there must be many transactions each time period; small markets simply do not have enough "data points" to draw an accurate picture.
In general, if the market is not big enough to be a U.S. census bureau's "MSA" - then you will need to look at nearby markets... see the maps in
Education & Tutorials area.