Crime Index By Zipcode

Trulia's Movity Offers More Than Just Maps

LOOKING BACK, the founders of Trulia can only laugh at their comically bad timing. In 2005, a real-estate-listings site driven by elegant design seemed like a brilliant idea. Housing prices were soaring, and venture capitalists from Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital lined up with $33 million. Little more than a year later, the housing market crashed.

Infographic: Trulia Crime Rate  

Yet Trulia has survived -- and thrived. As of May, the site attracted 14 million visitors a month, nearly doubling in the last year. It reached profitability in mid-2010. The key to the future, says CEO Pete Flint, was not simply adding to its 4.8 million listings. To keep growing its audience, the site needed to provide richer, more meaningful information about the issues that really concern people searching for a new home. Which is why Trulia bought infographics startup Movity last December.

"In the last 15 years, the web has gotten progressively more visual, from text to pictures to video," says Flint. "Now we're at the early stages of the interactivity revolution. Data is abundant beyond belief, but context is scarce."

The challenge, says Movity cofounder Eric Wu, who now leads Trulia's data-visualization team, is "how can you use data not just as spectacle but to actually help people make a decision?"

The maps that Trulia has recently introduced help answer home buyers' critical questions: Are prices here still falling? Is this street on the "bad side" of town, or is it safe? Which schools could my kids attend, and how good are they? One map shows just how likely a house listed in a particular zip code is to see a price reduction after the first offer; other graphics detail crime locations, down to the block level, and the areas from which schools draw students, complete with the schools' performance ratings.

Wu points out that a beautiful, efficient user interface or a map that puts hard-to-read data a click away can be effective ways to distinguish a business like Trulia from its competitors. Silicon Valley has certainly taken notice of the phenomenon -- data visualization lies at the core of many buzzed-about startups. One of Reddit's cofounders, Steve Huffman, recently created Hipmunk, a travel-bookings site that includes charts that show how different flights rate on an "agony index" based on price, duration, and number of stops, as well as heat maps showing what sorts of attractions are close to a hotel. (See "Travel Search Gets Hip [Again]," March.) Qwiki, another startup, garnered nearly $10 million to create an intensely visual UI that would offer Wikipedia-like content.

Choosing A Neighborhood In Hawaii | How To Live In Hawaii

Of all the resources listed here, this is the one I’d start with because (1) it’s locally based website rather than a national one, and (2) it’s the most comprehensive in its coverage of topics. It provides statistics for nearly everything:

Population growth and density Percentage of households with kids Age distribution Annual residential turnover Percentage of homes that are vacant, rented, and owned Fair Market Rents Home sales trends and recent transactions Educational and income levels of residents School data (public, private, college/university) Percentage of white-collar vs. blue-collar jobs Climate and weather risks Crime index

Neighborhood Navigator also has a couple of nifty special features: Side-by-side comparisons of two selected communities, and Yelp reviews of local restaurants and other businesses. Zillow is a very popular national real estate site that offers some useful city and neighborhood statistics that aren’t found on Aloha Living’s Neighborhood Navigator:

Percentage of single males and females Commute times Local school info: Student-teacher ratio, ethnic composition, and percentage of students who receive free/reduced lunch Percentage of single family homes vs. condos

HomeFair If you’re looking for a private school in Hawaii, this national site offers the most comprehensive profiles. Its database is searchable by ZIP code, gender, teaching philosophy, and religious affiliation, and each school profile includes:

Number of students enrolled Religious affiliation (if any) Grades taught Percentage of teachers with advanced degrees Average class size Student-teacher ratio Test scores Cost of tuition Sports and extracurriculars offered

Hawaii Association of Independent Schools Here’s how to use this site to find average monthly temperatures and annual rainfall for towns and cities in Hawaii:

Search for a location. Once you’re on the weather page for that location, scroll down until you see a chart on the right side of the page titled “Today’s Averages & Records.” Click the link directly below that: “Historical Data.” If you don’t see this link, it’s because that info isn’t available for the location you entered. Return to step 1 and try searching for a larger city that’s nearby.

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