Market Value Analysis

Understanding where and how to invest limited resources is key to transforming urban real estate markets and revitalizing neighborhoods. TRF’s most effective tool for identifying these investment opportunities is our proprietary Market Value Analysis (MVA). First applied for Philadelphia’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, an MVA has since been created for Camden, Baltimore and other cities in this region.

An innovative tool, the MVA creates a data driven framework for restoring market viability and wealth in distressed urban real estate markets. It is designed to help governments and private investors target investment and prioritize action in ways that can leverage investment and revitalize neighborhoods.

To develop this analysis TRF uses a statistical technique known as cluster analysis that helps to uncover patterns in data. Cluster analysis does this by forming groups of areas that are similar along a set of selected values that describe those areas. While the groups are formed to be as uniform as possible within, the groups are also as dissimilar as possible from one another. Using this technique, the MVA is able to reduce vast amounts of data on hundreds of thousands of properties and hundreds of areas down to a manageable, meaningful typology of market types that can inform area-appropriate programs and decisions regarding the allocation of resources.

Using MVA, TRF identifies transitional areas that readily lend themselves to redevelopment and appropriate sites for affordable housing investment. The following are critical sets of information included in this analysis:

Existing home values
Occupancy/abandonment rates
Vacant land
Environmental conditions
Owner/renter mix
Public assets and liabilities
Private assets and liabilities
Existing level of investment
Median income of immediate and surrounding communities
Transportation linkages, assets and liabilities

Using this information, multiple sites are objectively compared and then ranked based on overall redevelopment potential. This scoring is further refined as specific site characteristics directly related to the cost and efforts required for redevelopment are applied, for example:

Percentage of privately held properties requiring acquisition
Environmental issues and related costs
Demolition and relocation needs
Historic preservation constraints

TRF’s ground-breaking data analysis has been noted in a variety of publications including the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Questions? Contact PublicPolicy@trfund.com or call 215-574-5800.