When it comes to real estate data, the U.S. census bureau has always been one of the leading sources of cold-hard data. The wealth of information that this resource provides is astounding. From a residential perspective it has mountains of data regarding single-family home status that can be used to value regional property rates compared to other regions in a geographic area. From a commercial real estate perspective, this same data can also be used to identify areas of solid investment, or other areas that would be worth divesting property.