Policy Maps in Charlottesville and Albemarle

Check out Policy Map 2.0.

This is yet another step forward in data transparency and availability … and we all benefit. Particularly those relocating who ask those questions that Realtors cannot answer.

I noted Policy Maps’ usefulness last year,

In many ways similar, if not a competitor to (as far as I can tell) to Geo Commons’ products. They have data layers for Real Estate Analysis, Neighborhood Conditions, Mortgage Originations, Education, Money & Income, Demographics, Owners and Renters, Jobs, Energy (wind and solar aren’t options – yet) – and dozens of subsets under each respective data layer.

This is all information that today’s real estate consumer wants (and needs) to know. Buyers relocating to new areas should find this kind of data invaluable.

The possibilities and uses for this tool are remarkable.

Unfortunately, some of the first data sets I pulled – vacancy rates for one – are using data from the 2000 Census, which is irrelevant at best, and dangerous at the worst should someone choose to draw substantive conclusions from that data.

The City of Charlottesville has “insufficient data” when inquiring about Aggravated Assaults (as much as I’d like to think Charlottesville is assault-free, I’m pretty sure we’re not).

I’m fond of the “Percent of all people who were White in 2000” but just for the grammar; I wonder how many of those people were still White in 2009.

Looking for an older home? You may want to target your search in areas with housing stock built before 1939.

Want to live around other people who are under the age of 55?

Check out the video at Policy Map’s blog.

More discussion at Read Write Web.