Whenever we talk about the detailed NWMLS stats for King County, someone inevitably asks for a map of the various areas. While I have had a map from the Seattle Times posted on the KC Breakouts history page for quite some time, I’ve never been all that satisfied with the imprecise nature of that solution.
So, I created my own map based on some more detailed pdf versions of the maps that I was pointed toward by Greg Perry (thanks Greg!).
I’ve finally finished drawing all the perimeters, and before I do much more work on it, I thought I’d solicit some feedback from you. So what do you think? What would be the best way to display this? What features does the map need? Any and all relevant feedback is appreciated.
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Greg Perry » Jun 2, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Nice job, Tim. Well done!
Of course, you’ll want to insert the area numbers.
I think you can have fun with these. Simple 3 color heat maps (Seller/Balanced/Buyer markets) are some of the most effective tools I have for assisting clients (especially Sellers) understand shifting market dynamics. They take the mountain of numbers and reduce them to an effective visual that are very easy to understand.
Once you get the map the way you want it, consider making it a JPEG so the overlay doesn’t have to load.
Greg Perry » Jun 2, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Man those eastern Eastside KC areas are huge……..
AndyMiami » Jun 2, 2008 at 7:07 pm
People..all you, please contribute. I finally did..whatever you can afford. What Tim has created has hopefully saved many on this website/blog..many dollars.
Great work Tim…
AndyMiami
WaileaKid » Jun 2, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Nice wok. Can you please use live maps instead? I hate GMaps. They are tough to navigate.
deeplennon » Jun 3, 2008 at 8:10 am
Looks purdy tim. My biggest request would be to ad SnoCo areas if you have access to their specific boundaries. I’ve never seen a map for them before.
Cascadian » Jun 3, 2008 at 8:26 am
I live in the King County part of Bothell, and I notice that it’s not included in your map. Is there not a breakout area for Bothell, or are we included in Snohomish County despite our location?
brettro » Jun 3, 2008 at 8:45 am
love it! Maybe in the box that pops up when you click on an area the most recent stats can be displayed- yoy price changes, median price, inventory if data is available at that level. Maybe even in graph form, if possible.
Another idea is to have an overlay that changes the colors of the area based on the criteria i mentioned. This would give people a very quick snapshot of what areas are hurting the most, and which ones are weathering the storm better than the rest.
The Tim » Jun 3, 2008 at 8:50 am
Cascadian & deeplennon,
Snohomish County is next on my list, and yes, for some reason that little chunk of Bothell / Kenmore is included in Snohomish County area 610. I happen to live in that little section as well.
brettro » Jun 3, 2008 at 8:53 am
oops looks like Greg already mentioned one of my ideas
Nell Plotts » Jun 3, 2008 at 9:37 am
Because almost all Bainbridge residents commute to Seattle please add that area, if possible.
singliac » Jun 3, 2008 at 9:42 am
I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard anyone prefer “live maps” to “google maps.” I forget that I’m in microsoft country. Then we can listen to Seattlebubble podcasts on our Zunes! Haha!
softwarengineer » Jun 3, 2008 at 9:42 am
WHERE’S THE BUY ONE HOME, GET ONE FREE SECTION ON THE MAP OF NORTH LA (SEATTLE)?
See the proof:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laland/2008/06/in-escondido-bu.html
The Tim » Jun 3, 2008 at 9:52 am
Hey, I have a Zune (30GB Gen1). They’re not half bad. I think my favorite feature is the fact that it only cost me $85 new.
:^)
Nathan » Jun 3, 2008 at 10:04 am
The outline of the “urban” areas vaguely remind me of Mecklenburg County in yet another strange Seattle-Charlotte dynamic.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ncmeckle/meck2001.jpg
The Tim » Jun 3, 2008 at 10:07 am
I should point out that the horizontal lines extending east to the county border are guesses, as none of the maps I could find actually show the borders of those areas further than North Bend.
Everett_Tom » Jun 3, 2008 at 10:26 am
Nice work!
it might be fun to map the “Audacious Flips and Renovations” on this map…
you know, some of the underlying code to drive features like that might be worthy of a source forge project.. I suspect there’s quite a few programmers in the ranks…
laxtosnoco » Jun 3, 2008 at 10:50 am
Tim, where did you get the boundaries for the different MLS areas?
Did you eyeball them based on a physical map or did you get an electronic boundary file from somewhere? I’ve tinkered with GIS maps in the past and would like to be able to this using GIS software.
The Tim » Jun 3, 2008 at 11:14 am
laxtosnoco, I got pdfs from Greg Perry that showed the boundaries in fairly specific detail, labeling the different streets that made up the borders, etc. From there I used Google’s “my maps” functionality to draw the shapes, which I then downloaded to a kml file and loaded in my custom map on the page I linked in the post.
Ric Cox » Jun 3, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Tim,
Which of the areas comprise Seattle proper? Does anyone run the numbers each month for condos in Seattle? We’d like to add them to our national Condo Market widget.,
The Tim » Jun 3, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Hi Ric,
Seattle proper is areas 140, 380, 385, 390, 700, 701, 705, and 710.
Garth » Jun 3, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Tim,
Are some zip codes split into two areas?
The Tim » Jun 3, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Garth, yes, the NWMLS areas make very little logical sense, and appear to have little or no relation to any other predefined areas. For example, look at zip code 98028, which spans areas 720, 600, and 610 (Snohomish, not yet mapped).
Yuk!
Garth » Jun 3, 2008 at 6:04 pm
That is horrible, I figured they were at most a couple zips each, and there is a great free dataset available from the census for zip code boundaries.
The Tim » Jun 3, 2008 at 7:06 pm
It is indeed. Although I have played around with the zip code geodata, and may be able to get some MLS stats that line up with zip codes. Stay tuned…
mark » Jun 4, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Great job overall.
The popup area numbers are a pain because you have to click each one to find the one you want. It w/b better to just print them on the map.