Just a few thoughts: What's in the local news? What are people talking about? Is there an urban design angle to it?
The US Census (assuming you are in the US) is an amazing trove of data. If you are outside the US, your government or universities likely have similarly useful statistics to draw from with relatively little difficulty vs. conducting your own original research. I'm not knocking original research, but amazing things can be done with easily accessible data. Look for example at the books of the late great Bill Lucy like Foreclosing the Dream http://www.amazon.com/Foreclosing-Dream-Americas-Housing-Reshaping/dp/1932364781/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460990475&sr=1-3
I'm also a huge fan of walkscore.com as an objective (though imperfect) source of walkability data.
Good luck!