Data Layers on Maps in RPR
You're a REALTOR® working with a client dreaming of buying her first home. She's watched prices snowball in her preferred neighborhoods and has made several offers without success. Her enthusiasm is waning. What to do? Take advantage of the new-and-improved housing market data overlays on the maps in Realtors Property Resource® (RPR). Start with the layer showing the median sold price. This is a monthly calculation for geographies such as ZIP code, city, county and state using public records and MLS data. It looks like your client's favorite neighborhood, Happy Place, is near the high end of home values in Pleasantville, where she hopes to relocate from her apartment in nearby Busy Town. In fact, you can validate the price escalation by looking at another overlay, the one showing the 12-month change in median estimated property value. You pan around the map and notice Hidden Gem, a neighborhood a couple of miles from Happy Place, where you can easily see that prices are declining slightly. Hidden Gem is ripe for further research on behalf of your client. This kind of visual market analysis is made possible by RPR's latest integration with Google Maps Platform, leveraging their new data-driven styling capabilities. Each month, RPR aggregates key market statistics, such as the median sold price and median estimated property value. Now, thanks to data-driven styling, RPR can superimpose the metrics on website maps, using coloring by various geography, which provides handy knowledge at a glance. The new map overlays are timely (updated monthly), intuitive (easy to access and interpret), and performant (fast to load in the RPR platform). RPR is one of the first real estate portals to implement Google Maps Platform's new capability and was spotlighted by Google Maps Platform in their I/O developer conference announcements on May 10. RPR's initial offering includes five data layers related to residential market information: Median Estimated Property Value: Shows the median estimated value for properties in an area on the last day of the previous month. 12-Month Change in Median Estimated Property Value: Shows the change in median estimated value for properties in an area over the past year. Median Sold Price: Shows the median sales price for properties in an area that sold in the previous month. Median List Price: Shows the median list price for properties in an area that were in an active status on the last day of the previous month. Pending Listings: Shows the number of properties in an area that were in a pending status on the last day of the previous month. 12-Month Change in Median Estimated Property Value: Areas with the greatest increase in median value are shaded deep blue, while the greatest declines are deep red. Median Estimated Property Value: Clicking a geography reveals a data summary, to assist in interpreting the map, and next steps, such as generating a report. Other improvements are brighter, easier-to-interpret colors and dynamic legends. This means that the data breaks reset depending on the underlying data. In a coastal market, the estimated property value, for example, may range up to $20 million, but in the heartland range up to $5 million, which requires different breakpoints to be clear on the map. Panning the map will cause the legend and shading to change in reflection of that underlying data. The new map overlays became available in early May. They will replace an older map feature that was harder to interpret and updated less frequently. The overlays are not yet available in reports—that functionality is coming soon. RPR will consider additional data layers for the maps that REALTORS® will find useful, such as concentration of distressed properties and other layers that support prospecting for clients, or even third-party data sets such as climate risk data or mobile carrier coverage. And RPR continues to display on maps flood zone information and commercial real estate-related indicators, updated annually. To view the original article, visit the RPR blog.