Feature
Nationwide Market Finder
Nationwide Market Finder helps investors decide where to search before sorting through individual properties. Describe the kind of county you want in plain English, review the exact criteria Lumen extracted, and compare more than 3,000 U.S. counties using published growth, rental, price, housing-supply, investor-lending, and hazard data. Every criterion stays visible and editable, and a county match opens directly in Property Search for the next stage of research.
7 days free, then $39/mo • Love it or cancel in 2 clicks. No calls.
Definition
Nationwide Market Finder is a county-screening tool for real estate investors. It translates a plain-English market strategy into explicit ranking preferences and required thresholds, then compares supported U.S. counties against those criteria.
The finder is designed for market discovery, not property underwriting. It can help identify counties with characteristics such as household growth, renter share, rent benchmarks, historical home-price movement, housing-permit activity, reported investor lending, or lower modeled hazard exposure. It does not declare that a county or property is a good investment.
How It Works
- Describe the county profile you want in plain English.
- Lumen converts the request into visible state scope, ranking preferences, thresholds, and optional property filters.
- Review and edit the interpretation before relying on the comparison.
- Market Finder ranks counties with the active public datasets available for each requested metric.
- Open a county in Property Search to research individual properties using supported ownership, equity, MLS, property, and distress filters.
Supported county metrics currently draw from Census ACS, HUD Fair Market Rents, FHFA House Price Index, Census Building Permits Survey, FEMA National Risk Index, and HMDA mortgage data. Source vintages and geographic coverage vary.
When to Use It
- When you know the market characteristics you want but not which counties fit them
- When comparing a regional strategy across several states
- When expanding beyond a familiar home market
- When you want a transparent shortlist before running property searches
- When a partner or client needs to see why a market made the list
Workflow or Example
A buy-and-hold investor might ask for Southeast counties with at least 100,000 residents, stronger household growth, a larger renter share, and lower modeled natural-hazard exposure. Lumen converts that request into one required population threshold and three ranked preferences. The investor can inspect the county values, adjust the weights or state scope, and open a promising county in Property Search.
Property-level signals remain a separate step. Preforeclosures, auctions, tax delinquency, absentee ownership, and vacancy status can help find properties after a county is selected, but Market Finder does not substitute those signals with unrelated county averages.
Pros
- • Turns a plain-English strategy into a nationwide county comparison
- • Shows the exact ranking logic instead of hiding it in an unexplained score
- • Combines several public sources in one consistent screening workflow
- • Moves selected counties directly into property research
Cons
- • County averages can hide important neighborhood differences
- • Not every metric is available for every county or source vintage
- • The supported public metrics do not cover every investor concern
Risks
- • Historical growth or price movement can be mistaken for a forecast
- • HUD and Census rent benchmarks can be mistaken for property-specific rent
- • A strong county match can still contain properties that fail detailed diligence
Step-by-Step Workflow
Step 1
Describe the target market
State the geography, required thresholds, and characteristics that matter to your strategy in plain English.
Step 2
Review Lumen's interpretation
Confirm the state scope, metrics, directions, and weights before using the ranking.
Step 3
Compare the county evidence
Review each match with its sourced metric values, coverage, and data vintage.
Step 4
Search the actual properties
Open a selected county in Property Search and apply the property-level filters that fit your buy box.
Frequently Asked Questions
What can I ask Market Finder to compare?
You can ask about supported county characteristics including population and household growth, renter share, housing vacancy, income, rent benchmarks, historical price movement, new housing permits, reported investor lending share, and modeled hazard-loss context.
Can Market Finder rank counties by preforeclosures or tax delinquency?
No. Those are property-level lead signals in JPS Property Search. Market Finder will identify the request as unsupported instead of quietly replacing it with an unrelated county metric.
Does the top-ranked county automatically make a good investment?
No. The ranking only reflects the criteria you selected and the available county data. Individual properties still require price, rent, condition, financing, insurance, legal, and other appropriate diligence.
Can I change the criteria Lumen creates?
Yes. The state scope, metrics, preference direction, thresholds, and ranking weights are visible and editable before you update the results.
Related Pages
Feature
Investor Market Intelligence
Review rent, vacancy, household trends, prices, housing supply, hazards, and investor lending context inside JustPropertySearch.
Feature
Multi-Location Property Search
Search multiple cities, counties, ZIP codes, addresses, and drawn map areas together with shared investor filters and deduplicated results.
Feature
Lumen AI Investor Research
Use Lumen AI for conversational property search and market-informed property research without hidden rent, ARV, repair, or financing assumptions.
Ready to put this to work?
Start a free trial and run it on your own markets in minutes.
7 days free, then $39/mo • Love it or cancel in 2 clicks. No calls.