UsableMarkets

In the right column of Economix, the NY Times economics blog, there are some charts underneath all the links that are fairly fascinating. One is a year over year change in home prices, by city. The user can click through each city, one at a time.

This is great data, and even great chart design, but overall something is missing.

Visualizing Economics transformed this data into something more meaningful, even though it may not longer sit comfortably in the right hand rail.

(click to enlarge)

Applying Tufte’s principle of small multiples, we now have a chart which allows for easy comparison of the data across cities. It then becomes immediately clear that the housing price collapse has not hit every city in the same way. Some cities, such as Las Vegas, LA and Miami, have suffered steep drops. Others, such as Portland, much less so.

While each chart allows for comparison to the average, more interesting is to compare individual cities against each other. Take Detroit, for example, which suffered a 20% fall in prices without the run up in prices (unlike Tampa, for example, where a 19% decline was preceded by a large run up in prices).

Kudos to Visualizing Economics for taking this display of data to the next level, and adding more meaning in the process.

~alex