Challenge
As the world adjusts to a new normal, home construction companies like our client are becoming increasingly interested in data that validates investments with high ROI potential. Bringing $10B+ in annual home sale revenues, our client shows no signs of slowing down.
“We've had wins with [the Migration Patterns product and] feel like directionally, it's showing us where the trends are happening across the country and impacting home building.”
– Market Intelligence Director, Home Construction Company
The increase in COVID-driven temporary, vacation or work-from-home moves added noise and confusion to the industry's typical migration patterns, challenging the national firm to identify where the long term patterns originated from, and where to invest.
Over the past two years, economic and environmental changes increased Americans’ affinity for Florida living. Lower cost of living, flexible housing options, and amenities galore proved to be high-ticket items– one doesn’t have to look further than skewed migration data to see that real estate investments are more challenging than ever.
“We've thought about migration pre-COVID mainly coming from the 55 and older buyer that's looking to retire and migrate to Florida. But now with work from home, we understand that there's a whole new migration pattern that's happening.”
– Market Intelligence Director
Following historical trends, the majority of those that move to Florida from other states claim status within the 55+ age group. But the already transient younger cohorts are driving big change as they’re the population most impacted by the flexibility of work from home opportunities. Coupled with higher salaries, remote jobs usher in a ripple effect of economic activity raising the question of longevity– how do investors determine whether these changes are stable enough to justify significant investment in the surrounding communities and neighborhoods?
Why Unacast?
Impressed by Unacast’s methodology, the firm was confident in Unacast’s ability to cut through the noise and align income changes to migration trends, validating which economic areas were ripe for investment.
“We've enjoyed being able to identify some of the household income changes from source markets to destination markets.”
– Market Intelligence Director
With Unacast’s Migration Patterns product, the firm saw an opportunity to achieve both an accurate and granular view of how population movements would shape existing and future plans for development across 5 regions in Florida.
Results
Our client's internal market intelligence analysts contextualized public and first party housing research with Unacast’s data, building a deeper understanding of areas of interest with high forecasted ROI. Using Tableau Power BI, and Archie, the team visualized trends, defining a permanent move as a 1-year stay would offset the risk of purchasing a 3-year supply of land. As a result, the internal analyst team was able to conduct a spatial analysis across the various regions enhancing their ability to execute a validated investment strategy with confidence.
