Check out what Chicago is doing to make decisions (based on data) for investments in land and vacant properties: http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/applying-big-data-to-vacants-and-other-steps-taken-by-chicagos-land-bank

"The aim is to create a tool that will make it easier to process data on foreclosures, real estate trends and the like to determine which properties are the best candidates for redevelopment. Think of it as a data-backed triage unit for vacant land.

'I don’t think we’ll be able to create a model that makes those choices easy,” Thomas Plagge, a post-doc in astrophysics and mentor for the land use fellows said. “What I think that we’ll be able to prototype out is a selection of algorithms that the land bank staff can apply to different neighborhoods in different situations.'”