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Homework Assignment 2
Metropolitan Area Summary Analysis -
Demographic and Industry Profiles
Due February 28
You are a real estate market analyst for a major national retail company.
Currently, your company is evaluating new markets it might wish to enter.
You have been asked to prepare a market profile for a particular county
addressing the following questions and issues:
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Where is the county located? Is it a part of a
larger MSA? What is the county's position in the MSA (the central city, a
suburb, etc.)?
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What are the major transportation routes to and from
the county and how do they connect the county to the rest of the MSA, state, and
country?
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What is the county's demographic profile?
Include the total population and significant demographic breakdowns (age,
education levels, race, income levels, housing, etc.) that are important to
understanding the market. How have these demographic characteristics been
changing over time?
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What are the most important industries and who are
the major employers in the county? Note that you will want to discuss both
those industries with the largest employment and those that have the highest
location quotients (the basic industries). How have these been changing
over time?
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What are important quality of life factors to
consider about this county?
You may select any county outside of Kansas for your report.
Your report should be written in prose, meaning that it should be written in
complete sentences and paragraphs. Make sure you don't just list facts.
Instead, put the key facts together in a way that paints a picture about what
the county is like. You may include charts and tables if you wish, but the
key information should be written in the report; a map of the county would also
be nice. The length of the report less important than the content, but I
expect quality reports will be around 3 pages in length.
In addition to the written report, you must make a 5-10-minute PowerPoint
presentation to the real estate department summarizing the key demographic and
industry trends in your selected county. You will make this presentation
in class on the day it is due.
Helpful hints:
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The following websites provide examples of the type
of information that chambers of commerce and economic development groups provide
to site selectors. Although these are not written in prose, many of the
individual paragraphs will give you a feel of how to write your report.
Remember, however, that these are promotional sites, so they do not include
negative information; your reports should be objective.
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Next is a report the WSU Center for Economic
Development and Business Research conducted a few years back for a private
company that was going through the “making the list” process for site selection
consideration. As you can see the tone of the document is quite different.
This is a typical example of a report produced for an in-house presentation to
the director of sales and marketing or the VP of real estate development.
Note that this report was comparing Wichita in the context of a set of
pre-selected competitors (also very typical). Finally, recognize that this
report is much longer than what you are expected to prepare, and it is not
written in prose for the most part.
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A note on plagiarism: You will likely find
prewritten material about your county from online economic development and
chamber of commerce sites. Feel free to use the information they present,
but make sure you rewrite it in your own words. If you have any doubt
about whether you are borrowing too much from the source, feel free to send me
what you've written and a link to your source and I'll be happy to give you
feedback.
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Write and rewrite. Make sure that the first
draft of your report is not the final draft. Try and get the initial draft
done in advance so that you can let it sit over night and revise it before
is due. Up until now, I have told you that we are more
interested in process than product. For this assignment, the final product
is important.
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