Sacramento’s housing market offers a case study of the nationwide trend toward lower home prices over the last few years. This dataset, acquired by Universal Mind from the Sacramento Bee, includes nearly 10,000 home sales from 2003 through May, 2008. Only sales of homes over 3000 square feet are included.

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The visualization linked above starts out with a comparison of average house prices between 2006 and 2007. This use case illustrates the mapping of aggregates (like home sale price), which provides added value over simply visualizing the total number of points. The slump is clearly visible in the map rendering, much lighter in most areas on the 2007 map. The trend can also be seen on either map’s time chart — a combined timeline/histogram. After a period of steady price increases, the slump appears to begin around June 2006.

The trend is obviously not the same over the entire Sacramento area; some areas may have slumped sooner, while others maintained price stability over the entire period. The two maps are live linked, so mousing over either map will reveal specific sale price numbers for both maps. Use this to further explore the spatial and temporal variation in the housing slump in Sacramento.