How to Use Census and Cell Phone Data For Commercial Real Estate Investment
Make data-driven decisions for your commercial real estate investments
The days of relying solely on gut instinct or outdated demographic reports to make real estate decisions are long gone. Today’s top commercial real estate investors and brokers are turning to a powerful blend of data sources—particularly U.S. Census data and real-time cell phone mobility data—to uncover high-potential markets and properties. These tools are giving investors an edge in an increasingly competitive landscape.
Why Population and Mobility Data Matter
In commercial real estate, success often hinges on one key factor: location. But beyond the classic “location, location, location” mantra lies a deeper need to understand who’s actually there—and when. Population growth, income levels, and foot traffic patterns all impact tenant performance, lease-up speed, and long-term asset value.
Whether you’re investing in a retail center, multifamily building, or mixed-use project, understanding who your customers or tenants are—and how they move—is essential for minimizing vacancy risk and maximizing returns.
Census Data: The Long-Term View
Census data offers a broad and reliable snapshot of demographic trends. It reveals critical information such as population growth, household income, age distribution, education levels, and housing characteristics. This type of data is invaluable for identifying emerging markets, planning long-term investments, and understanding shifts in consumer behavior.
For example, an area with rising household income and a growing millennial population may be ripe for mixed-use or multifamily development. Likewise, census data can help pinpoint underserved neighborhoods where demand may outpace current supply.
Cell Phone & Mobility Data: The Real-Time Advantage
While census data shows macro-level changes over time, cell phone mobility data brings your market analysis into the present. Aggregated and anonymized smartphone data can reveal how many people are visiting a location, how long they stay, and how frequently they return.
These insights help investors compare foot traffic between competing retail centers, evaluate potential for tenant success, identify high-performing corners and corridors within a submarket.
Tools and Platforms to Leverage
A growing number of data platforms now make it easier than ever to collect and interpret these insights:
Placer.ai – A leader in location analytics, Placer.ai provides detailed foot traffic reports based on anonymized cell phone data. It’s widely used by CRE professionals to analyze retail centers, restaurants, and entertainment venues.
U.S. Census Bureau / American Community Survey (ACS) – These public tools offer up-to-date demographic data, including population trends, median income, educational attainment, and housing stats. Tools like data.census.gov are completely free and ideal for market-level analysis.
Esri Business Analyst – Esri offers powerful GIS and demographic tools that help investors visualize market potential and population shifts across zip codes, census tracts, or custom geographies.
CoStar – While traditionally used for property and market comps, these platforms often integrate demographic overlays and can be used in conjunction with other data sources to validate opportunities.
Combining the Two for Smarter Decisions
When used together, census and mobility data become a powerful one-two punch. Census data helps you identify long-term demographic tailwinds, while cell phone data confirms whether real-time activity supports investment.
For instance, census data may point to strong population growth in a metro area, but mobility data could show that one specific shopping corridor sees 5x the foot traffic of others. That level of granular insight allows you to deploy capital more strategically and avoid costly missteps.
Avoiding Common Pitfalls
As powerful as these tools are, they’re not foolproof. Mobility data can be noisy or misleading without clear benchmarks, and not all foot traffic translates to spending. Census data, meanwhile, may not reflect fast-changing neighborhoods. The key is to use multiple sources, ground-truth your findings, and interpret the data within a broader market context.
Conclusion
The most successful commercial real estate investors today are data-driven. By combining the long-range insights of census data with the real-time power of mobility analytics—and leveraging platforms like Placer.ai, Esri, and the U.S. Census—you can uncover high-potential opportunities, avoid risk, and stay ahead of the curve.
Whether you're scouting retail locations, evaluating a multifamily play, or repositioning an asset, smart data usage isn't just helpful—it's essential. If you have any more questions, reach out to Commercial Brokers International via info@cbicommercial.com or 310-943-8530