HPI | Geographical Perspectives

Map of Housing Price Index Change Illustrates Four Clusters of Misery

A couple days ago I posted a list of metropolitan areas and their associated 5-year change in housing prices. I find it interesting to see the data at a more granular level because when you aggregate by state a lot of information gets hidden away.

Today I made a map of the same data. I used a new web-based mapping program that TerraSeer is developing called MarketSeer. More on that coming soon. The mapping program is in beta so some options (colors, etc) are limited but here’s a map displaying Housing Price Index changes over 5 years. The darkest green circles have the largest declines in home prices and the light colored circles have had either modest declines or increases in housing prices. The circles are sized by population.

Housing Price Index changes by MSA

I get a little annoyed when I see articles ranking which states have the worst foreclosure problem or the biggest drop in housing prices over time. Why would anyone want to look at this at the state level? Maybe state governors and political talking heads? Not really my kind of audience. The economic drivers that determine the health of a housing market are far more localized and don’t really care about state boundaries. I think you have to at least look at metropolitan areas to learn something about housing prices.

For example, let’s look at Illinois.