A Sub-Market Evaluation analyzes the sub-markets that make up a chosen geography, such as an MSA, County, Zip Code, Place, or Neighborhood. It works by plotting an analysis point at the center of every census tract in the chosen geography, and then calculates metrics for each analysis point's PMA(s).

To begin, click on blue New Analysis button on the top right of the Analyses section, give your analysis a name, and select Market Evaluation from the list of options. Then click “Site Selection.”

In the next window, use the State drop-down to choose the state that contains your desired market(s). Once you have selected the state, click into the Market Type drop-down to choose the type of geography you’d like to analyze, options include:

· County

· MSA

· Neighborhood

· Zip Code

· Place

Once a Market Type is chosen, the Select Market Boundaries menu will pop-up. Check the box beside your desired market(s), you may choose up to three (3).

Once you’ve entered the information for your site, click “Benchmarks” to select your benchmark for this analysis.

In this tab you’ll have the option of choosing a benchmark type of: None, Group, MSA, County, Zip, Place, State, and Neighborhood comparison. Using a Benchmark Group allows you to compare your target site(s) with the average of all of the sites in the Benchmark Group.

The following benchmark types: MSA, County, Zip, Place, State, and Neighborhood comparison will automatically reference their respective geography based on the site selected during Step 2. Once you have selected a benchmark, click “Market Areas.”

Step 4 is where you define the primary market area (PMA) for your analysis. There are three options of buffers to choose from: Distance (miles), Drive Time (minutes), and Quadrants (miles). This will place your desired market area around each census tract in the chosen market.

Select your desired buffer type(s) and buffer value(s), click “Add Market Area” to save your selections. You may use up to 15 PMAs per analysis. Please note the buffer restrictions below.

To delete a buffer, click the “X” in the market areas list.

Additionally, VisionLTC supports the PMA Overlap methodology of calculating competition. Click the checkbox labeled “Use PMA Overlap Methodology” while selecting a distance buffer to use this calculation. For more information on the PMA Overlap Method, check out this article.

When you have finalized your buffer selections, click “Supply Settings.”

The Supply Settings step allows you to edit competition in your desired market area before running an analysis. All changes made on the Supply Management page will be reflected in metric values (like penetration rates and unmet demand figures) as well as the competition lists.

NOTE: You can ONLY use this step on a Site Evaluation that does NOT include a benchmark. If this analysis type is not selected, you can run your analysis as usual by clicking the "Next" button on Step 5.

Click “Assumptions” to move to the next step in the Analysis Wizard.

The assumptions tab is where you can change inputs that feed directly into the metric output calculations. Click into any unique assumption category to alter the individual assumption values. Change the assumptions to your desired values and click “Submit Analysis” to process your Analysis.

Please note that not all metrics are dependent on assumption values (Ex: Median Home Value CY), but many metrics are built so that assumption inputs can be used to customize the metric output (Ex: IL Income Qualified 75+ CY).

NOTE: If you do not alter these values, the default values will be used.