HotPads

Here's another really cool map based real estate mash-up. In this case the subject matter is rather depressing. HotPads, a residential real estate listing site in the U.S. has created a 'heat map' to illustrate areas of high foreclosure rates. Using map data from Microsoft's virtual earth and combining it with listing data, they have created colour-coded maps to show the density of foreclosures.

This is cool for what they have been able to achieve by putting two data sources together on the web. But it is very depressing when you see what it tells you. Here is a map of Detroit. Most of the city has foreclosures on more than one in 150 houses. Here's a link to this view.

If you click on the houses, you get a pop-up that gives you details on the listing. If the map is depressing, these listings are absolutely alarming. Here's a nice big three bedroom house for $9,900:

And here is a map of the Niagara Falls / Rochester area. This is just across the lake from us. Even here there are regions where there are over 1 in 600 houses that are subject to foreclosure.

Take a look at this nice house in Buffalo: yours for $32,000

I love what they have done technically with this site. They've pulled in a ton of data. The mash-up conveys information in a clear way. It's simple to navigate and drill down to the listings. Unfortunately it creates a very vivid picture of how deep and serious the housing market crisis is in the States right now.