Join us in Boston on Jan 15th – 19th 2010 for the American Library Association Midwinter Conference. We’ll be there to promote the new Library Site License offered from PolicyMap, giving universities and schools the ability to offer an innovative mapping technology and . As a PolicyMap user in academia, this kind of license can provide your whole school unlimited access to the PolicyMap application for research, papers and presentations directly through your library!
Learn more about how students and universities derive value from PolicyMap, contact us if you’d like to talk more about a license for your university or visit us at booth 1029 in the Boston Convention Center.
“I’ve found that PolicyMap is a very effective tool in transforming students from research consumers to research producers. In the past, my introductory research class students became discouraged before they could produce results. When I asked students to use PolicyMap to tell me some distinctive qualities of their own neighborhood, they were on the site and producing maps and analyses very quickly.”- Mark Stern, Professor of Social Welfare and History Co-Director, Urban Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania
By October 1st every year HUD releases final fair market rents (FMRs) for counties and metropolitan areas, which we display together as county subdivisions throughout the country. The FMR is an estimate of the monthly gross rent (shelter rent plus utilities) of privately-owned, safe, and decent rental housing. In addition to providing a snapshot of current, local rental markets, the FMR is used to determine payment amounts for HUDs Section 8 voucher programs, the Housing Choice Voucher Program and the Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy Program.
For the newest FMR data select Owners & Renters > Fair Market Rents in the Add Data Layer menu.
FMRs are also used by HUD to calculate Qualified Census Tract (QCT) and Difficult to Develop Area (DDA) designations. Census tracts that are designated QCTs and DDAs are entitled to greater funding through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program: the nation’s largest federal housing program for acquisition, rehabilitation or new construction of low income rental housing. A QCT is one where the median income is less than 60% of area median income; a DDA is a tract that has high construction, land, and utility costs relative to the area median gross income. Gulf Opportunity or GO Zones also qualify for greater funding through the LIHTC program. GoZones were mandated in 2005 in response to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. GoZones are set to expire at the end of 2010.
For the 2010 QCT, DDA and Go Zone designations go to: Jobs & Economy > Federal Incentive Designations in the Add Data Layer menu.
For more detail on any of these programs or greater definitions, visit The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s website at www.hud.gov.
As the nation debates the need for healthcare reform, a question worth asking is: where are the most uninsured populations? The Census’s Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE) can provide some answers. They have county and state level data for 2005 and 2006.
Counties with the highest rates of uninsured people in 2006
 |
County, State |
Percent Uninsured 18 to 64 in 2006 |
| Hudspeth, TX |
50.6% |
| Edwards, TX |
49.4% |
| Terrell, TX |
49.1% |
| Webb, TX |
48.9% |
| Jeff Davis, TX |
47.7% |
| Brazos, TX |
45.4% |
| Mason, TX |
45.3% |
| Hall, TX |
45.2% |
| Sherman, TX |
45.2% |
Cimarron, OK |
45% |
Do you want to learn more about this dataset or other features on PolicyMap? Join our free weekly trainings (Click Here) or send your questions to pmap@policymap.com.
We’ve just posted the latest Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data recently released by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) for 2008. Last year’s 2007 HMDA data clearly reflected the trauma in the housing market, and the 2008 data reveals ongoing difficulties, as well.
With the annual release of the HMDA data, the Federal Reserve Bank issues a publication of preliminary findings in which they discuss trends and changes in the data from years previous. This year, the Federal Reserve focuses on the prevalence of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans made in the second half of 2008 (see HMDA 2008 Draft for more information). Here at PolicyMap, we decided to take a closer look at FHA lending across the nation to see where these changes were most apparent. We were particularly interested in FHA trends in light of the recent FHA audit that revealed cash reserve troubles (see this NY Times article for more information).
We took a look at the states with the highest percent change in FHA lending, and then dug deeper by considering the census tracts within those states to find the communities with the highest prevalence of FHA loans. Compared to the nation, whose FHA lending rose nearly 195%, California topped the list with a 4,415% increase, followed by Nevada, with a 2,036% spike. The only states with an increase of less than 75% were North Dakota and Mississippi, with increases of 53% and nearly 20%, respectively.
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The most recent quarterly vacancy data for the period May 2009 through September 2009 is now available on PolicyMap. You can find this data from the US Postal Service under the Neighborhood Conditions tab in the Add Data Layer menu. Just click on USPS All Properties, Residential Properties or Commercial Properties.
So, which counties had the highest percent of vacant residential properties? Interestingly, this list is almost the same as last quarter but for the addition of Glascock County, GA (and the removal of Harmon, OK from the list.)
Top 10 Residential Vacancy Rates (for counties–July 2009 through Sept 2009)
 |
County, State |
Percent of all residential units that are vacant, 3rd Qtr 2009 |
| Eagle, CO |
22.35% |
| Burnett, WI |
18.08% |
| Sawyer, WI |
17.68% |
| Webster, GA |
17.08% |
| Essex, VT |
16.52% |
| Lander, NV |
16.40% |
| Stonewall, TX |
16.11% |
| Glascock, GA |
15.86% |
| Lafayette, FL |
15.56% |
| Taylor, GA |
15.13% |
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Welcome to our series on helpful tips for PolicyMap. With over 10,000 data indicators and many online features, we hope our series can help users better utilize PolicyMap. For a complete training, please join a free online session here: Click Here
Did you know that PolicyMap runs best on Google’s Chrome browser? The free browser has been built by Google to accommodate websites like PolicyMap that run using lots of complex javascript. PolicyMap works on all other browsers as well (except IE6), but we’ve found that performance on Google Chrome is superior. We recommend you check it out. And it is free. Just go here to download.
We’ve had recent reports that certain features of PolicyMap are not working correctly for an Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) user. If you are an Internet Explorer 6 user on Windows XP SP1, please note that due to Microsoft’s lifecycle policy, PolicyMap does not support this browser version. Later versions including IE7 and IE8 work great with PolicyMap.
Are you not sure what type and version of internet browser you are using? Just open your browser used to access the web, and click on the HELP on the top of the browser and go to About [Name of Browser]. If you do not have HELP on the top, then select the browser option icon in the top right area. "About [Name of Browser]" will display your browser type and also the version.
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PolicyMap is now available as a site license for school and university libraries, giving library users unlimited access to the PolicyMap application for research, papers and presentations! Learn more about how students and universities derive value from PolicyMap or contact us if you’d like to talk more about a license for your university.
We've loaded mortgage data from HMDA for 2008 in PolicyMap - so you now have mortgage statistics from 2004 to through 2008 available in one place. You can see this data on maps by clicking any of the indicators in the Mortgage Originations tab in the Add Data Layer Menu. Just zoom in to see a census tract map and click once on any census tract to see its underlying value. You can change the year or variable in the legend to see the indicator for another year or, for example, find the median amount of a loan and how that has changed over time.
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In a couple of days, we will be getting 2008 HMDA data available on PolicyMap, which will provide details about and insight into the recent housing and mortgage crisis. The current issue of the Federal Reserve Bulletin has an article analyzing this recent data (available here HMDA 2008), and found a few trends. According to the report:
The 2008 HMDA data reflect the ongoing difficulties in the housing and mortgage markets. Reported loan application and origination volumes fell sharply from 2007 to 2008 after already falling considerably from 2006 to 2007. The reduction in lending occurred among all groups of borrowers regardless of race, ethnicity, or income, although lending for some groups declined more sharply than for others.
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