These days, I am hearing about all the great benefits of owning rental property. But it’s not just about having available rental property, it’s about having rental space in the best possible location.

Ron Johnsey, who tracks relocation trends with Axiometrics (axiometrics.com) recently blogged that when it comes to determining the best place to buy and/or own an apartment property, it is important to examine the area’s economic and demographic variables such as job growth, net domestic migration and population trends, education, income levels and apartment market fundamentals.

Johnsey refers to recent Apartment Guide research that he believes can complement U.S. Census Bureau data on net domestic migration trends by better identifying in which markets the relocations are occurring.

In its recent research, Johnsey says Apartment Guide provided a comprehensive list of top-searched sister metros - where people most often move from and where they move to - as well as the top-searched MSAs.

The top searched markets in order were Los Angeles; Washington D.C.; Dallas; Houston; Atlanta; New York City; Miami; Chicago; Phoenix; and Philadelphia.

Apartment Guide developed its report from internal search data from May 2013 to determine the top sister metros, while U.S. Census Bureau data was used to identify common reasons for the moves.

Reasons for relocation included:

1. Family-related reasons

• 6.3 percent move due to change in marital status
• 10.7 percent move to establish own household
• 12.3 percent move due to other family reasons

2. Job-related reasons

• 9.5 percent move due to new job or job transfer
• 1.8 percent move to look for work or lost their job
• 5.5 percent move to be closer to work/easier commute
• 2.1 percent move for another job-related reason