'Heat maps' show pricey, popular communities

NEW YORK – Dec. 5, 2006 – A new “heat map” feature on some real estate Web sites measures a neighborhood’s popularity and affordability by highlighting the areas in colors ranging from red hot to cool green.

• At popular Zillow.com, you can tell by a glance which spots are the priciest. For example, in a map of the United States, a cluster of red appears on the West Coast, where homes in the California communities of Malibu, Santa Monica, most of Beverly Hills, and the coastal areas from Manhattan Beach through Rancho Palos Verdes range from $1,000 to $1,999 per square foot.

• Visitors of Trulia.com can choose what kind of information the heat map displays. Popularity is measured by the number of times a neighborhood is searched by Web site visitors, but you can also use the map to show average listing price, sales price, or price per square foot.

• Renters can get similar popularity rankings at Hotpads.com, which uses Census data to "heat up" communities by median age, rent, population density, income, and percentage of renters.

Source: Los Angeles Times, Gayle Pollard-Terry (12/03/2006)

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