According to data from the DC Office of Tax and Revenue, 5,372 single family homes or condo units were purchased at fair market value in the District of Columbia in 2012. The geographic distribution of these homes and their sales prices follows some generally unsurprising patterns.
Homes are expensive west of Rock Creek Park; Condo sales are concentrated in the core of the city and along certain major arterial roads; and the markets for this specific type of residential real estate lagged east of the Anacostia River and along Eastern Avenue. These maps make a statement about where mobile homeowners and investors are choosing to live and risk their money in the District, which in turn reflects the perceived existing or potential quality of life in those neighborhoods. They also provide insight into the District's housing stock.
Neighborhoods with high concentrations of apartment buildings, whether 4 units or 400 units, will not have a dominant presence on the maps. Turnover rates and neighborhood density also influence these visualizations, as do many other factors that readers will surely suggest in the comments.
Some notes about the data: The above total includes 2,286 condominiums (horizontal or vertical) and 3,086 single family homes (attached, detached, or semi-detached). Some of these may have been sold more than once in the calendar year, but because the figures only reflect the most recent sale, those cases only count once.
Cross-posted at Greater Greater Washington
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Update: This visualization hasn't gone over very well. Hopefully I can at least get a shout-out on Cartastrophe.
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| Comments from Greater Greater Washington |
I appreciate your volunteering for Cartastrophe. I'm bogged down at present, but if I can get a chance to write something up, I'll let you know. Also, kudos for handling the painful experience of internet criticism so well.
ReplyDeleteThe two graphics do tell a story. And they are visually interesting. The limits to topographical detail, what isn't there, is equally interesting. One fills in the gaps in the story with what one knows about the city--income differential, racial concentrations, other details. Your critics are, perhaps, just not getting the details they want, e.g., prices and other market info, street information, whatever, but what's missing is for a different graphic or table or column of facts. No map meets the needs of everyone who comes across it. Nice effort here.
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