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rpdata.  Download the suburb sales report,  cross off the houses that don't match (eg too many bedrooms) and go for a drive to look at the others (or some of them).  You really don't know until you've been there.  You don't know what the house looks like, or what it is next to, or what the road is like, the rest of the surburb.  There just is not substitute for going there and having a look.  Say there are three 4 bed 2 bath homes listed in the report, and they seem similar online.  Going for a drive reveals that one is a high set fibro across the road from a public housing house which doesn't look good, one is a restored qlder and has a massive $50K shed built in the back yard and one looks like a 10 year old brick family home.  Perhaps google earth could be used, but it is not really timely enough for this purpose.  You can't beat going for a drive, and in terms of making mistakes with the purchase of RE, going for a drive is normally pretty affordable.

All of the statistics on line that you keeping showing us John are useful, but I always have the concern that they are to be used for identifying existing trends, the booms you've missed. 

Where are, what are the drivers of population growth, what determines where the new people will want to live and how do you identify major projects which have the potential to change a local economy before they hit the major news media?

Hi  S Hales

Re physical inspection of the suburb, street and property is important. However  I would conduct alot of due diligence and research before I inspected the property

see Due dilgence
At a minimum check out the sewer position, any road changes planned eg widening or bus stop outside front door etc and some other critical info before I inspected the property

Some of this research can be conducted online using digital imaging software. Check out the lot shape, size, dimensions etc  see

    
Also check out the listing information and photos online. Check out the property information online using a state gov supplier or reseller.

Do some sales data analysis before you inspect. If the property is overpriced and the vendor is not willing to negotiate on price there is no point in inspecting the property See

I do have access to other information about drivers of growth but did not want to bombard readers with info. Anyway here is some specific and detailed research information below.

• Population growth in Australia
• Immigration into Australia
• Migration between states and local government areas
• Demographic trends
• Federal Government budgets
• State Government budgets
• Industry growth
• Mining & Petroleum industry growth
• National, State, and Regional infrastructure development projects.
• Local government infrastructure development plans
• Jobs growth and labour statistics
• Unemployment trends
• Personal income trends
• Family income trends
• Home loan interest rate trends
• Income tax rate trends
• Consumer price index
• Consumer income and expenditure
• Consumer Price Inflation rates
• Prices & cost of living
• Financial incentive Gov strategies for first home buyers
• Home ownership assistance programs in Australia
• Affordability statistics
• Mortgage stress measurements
• Established housing market trends
• New home sales and building trends
• Land sales market trends
• Land supply and demand
• New housing supply and demand
• Established housing demand and supply
• Building activity
• Australian Property Market Indicators

See the full  information here   Drivers of Property Growth in Australia

Any major or minor projects are approved by State Gov and Local Gov Area (LGA)  authorities years in advance.
If an investor wants to keep their finger on the pulse monitor State Gov and LGA development plans. An investor could be way ahead of the pack just by knowing where to find information and keeping well informed. Power to the researcher!  see

Brevity.

Ha ha.  John, I think you are an absolute wealth of information sources, and I just don't have time to do these resources justice.  I'd love to store all your links away for future reference, but I guess I can always run a search on your username and it will be right here.
The idea of analysing a specific suburb is a good one, but I just don't have the time to do it personally at the moment.  Wouldn't it be necessary to research several suburbs so you could compare them and choose which best suits your needs?

I really need to do an income tax return and tax planning so I can borrow some money, and this must take precedence at the moment.  The tax office has some of my money and I want it back.  Damn PAYG Instalment tax

S