Graphics

We plot the average increase percentage by year from 2013 to 2018 for the top metropolitan areas (rank by population size). From the bar chart, we can see Seattle has the highest average rental increase rate while Washington has the lowest rate. Then, we compare this average rental increase rate with average inflation rate (2013-2018). The red line in the plot represents the average inflation rate. We can see majority of top metro areas are above inflation rate, except three areas: St.Louis, Baltimore, Washington are below the the inflation rate. Based on these findings, we think investing in real estate is a good choice in top 20 metro areas for keeping the value of assets.

We plot the monthly rent price trend for the top 20 metropolitan areas (rank by population size) to better understand about historical rent price. From the line chart, we can see majority of top metro areas have seen continuous rent increases from 2013 to 2019, with San Francisco achieving the highest dollar price.