Did you know subscribers now have the option to choose what geography any section in a report uses to aggregate data by. In our recent post about the unique rules for custom regions, we stated that “GeoSteps” are used to determine the default geography used to aggregate data in reports. This rule was created to make PolicyMap run faster and be more responsive when creating reports.

We realize though, users are also looking to gather more detailed information for a custom region, so we’ve added a new feature to the following reports: Community Profile Report, Rental Housing Report, and Home Sale Report. This feature is called, the Report Chooser. Now, when you create a report for a custom region or radius, the Report Chooser feature gives you the option to have each section aggregate to any available geography for that dataset.

Why is the Report Choose an important new feature? In our blog entry regarding the 50% Rule, you will remember that only locations which have at least 50% of its area contained within a custom region will be used when aggregating data. The Report Chooser will now allow a smaller geography to apply the 50% Rule to, giving an aggregation using more granular data (i.e. census tracts or blockgroups) and possibly containing a more accurate grouping of geographies for a custom region/radius.

In this example, we have made a 2.5 mile radius from Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears football team. Because of the size of the radius, the default geography used for aggregating in the radius are census tracts. With the new Report Chooser, we now have the option to select a smaller geography, like blockgroups, to aggregate data by.

(The highlighted areas meet the 50% Rule and will be included in aggregation. The dark black boundaries are census tracts and the lighter grey are blockgroups. Notice that areas not originally included when using census tracts are now included in blockgroups. In particular, the northwest area.)

To use the new Report Chooser feature, simply create a Community Profile Report, Rental Housing Report, and Home Sale Report for a custom region or radius. In each section of data, you will see new fields that display the source of the data, the geography used to aggregate the area, and the number of geography(ies) used in the aggregation. Select from the drop down menu to choose a different geography to aggregate the section by, as shown on the image on the left. The section will refresh to re-calculate the data. It should take a few seconds or more to refresh, depending on the size of your custom region or radius and how many geographies the section is using to recalculate by.

Here are some useful notes regarding the Report Chooser feature:

• The feature is only available to reports created for custom regions or radius. Reports for predefined geographies will simply show the source of the data for each section.
• If your custom region or radius is too small, you will not be able to select a larger geography than the default.
• Assembled custom regions will default to the geography used to create the custom region. (i.e. a custom region created by assembling county subdivisions, will default to the county subdivision for aggregation.)
• If the geography used to assemble a custom region does not exist in the dataset, then the GeoSteps will be used to determine the default geography used for aggregation. (i.e. a custom region created by assembling zip codes, will default to the census tract for aggregation.)
• Only the geographies that are used in the GeoSteps for a dataset is shown in the drop down menu.

Changing the “Aggregated By” will also change the “Contains:” list and count. This is helpful to know exactly what geographies were used in the calculation.

As you can see, the Report Chooser is a new feature with a very unique function. The ability to use smaller geographies to aggregate data by can help give a more accurate representation of data. For more information or if you would like to join a training, contact our support team at pmap@policymap.com or call us at (866) 923-MAPS.

To read a full guide on all features on PolicyMap, please look at our Primer available here. If you wanted to know more about a feature or topic, send your request to info@policymap.com subject “Did you Know…”

Sincerely,
The PolicyMap Team

Did you know the custom region feature for subscribers gives users the ability to draw right on top of the map to create their own target areas. Once a custom region is drawn, users can then open a custom region in the Tables feature to see aggregated counts or list of geographies that make up the custom region; or open in Reports to get aggregated numbers.

A custom region can contain any geography and cross multiple geographic boundaries and boundary types; we decided to create a blog serie and review some of the unique rules for custom regions to make sense of how data is aggregated and how custom regions display data.

Geography by Assembled Custom Region – The geography which was used to assemble a custom region will be the default geography used to aggregate data. For example, if you assemble a custom region by blockgroups, then the default geography used in reports or tables are blockgroups. This is helpful if you want to download data using the See Values features in Tables. Simply assemble a custom region on the Maps page by the geography you want to download data for, and the See Values will default to that geography.

Donuts in Assembled Custom Regions – When assembling a custom region by selecting the geographies around an area, PolicyMap will automatically fill in the middle of the “donut” when saved, but will only use the geographies selected to aggregate. PolicyMap will not include the geographies in the middle of the “donut”, even though the shaded area is filled in. In the example on the right, the highlighted area will only be used in aggregation but the custom region will “fill in” the area inside the donut when saved.

Non-contiguous Assembled Custom Regions – Assembling a custom region has a unique feature, it allows a custom region to contain geographies that do not have contiguous borders or borders which do not touch each other. In the example below, a user wanted to get aggregated data for specific census tracts throughout downtown Los Angeles, CA. The user is able to individually select each census tract to create a custom region. The custom region can then be opened in Tables to download data for the selected census tracts or in Reports to get aggregated data for the selected census tracts also.

Example of assembling a non-contiguous custom region

While there is not a limit on how many geographies can be selected when assembling a custom region, the total number will increase the amount of time it takes PolicyMap to process and save the custom region.

If there are any unanswered questions about the custom regions feature or you would like to learn more about PolicyMap, join us in our free weekly training or contact us at pmap@policymap.com.

To read a full guide on all features on PolicyMap, please look at our Primer available here. If you wanted to know more about a feature or topic, send your request to info@policymap.com subject “Did you Know…”

Sincerely,
The PolicyMap Team

Did you know the custom region feature for subscribers gives users the ability to draw right on top of the map to create their own target areas. Once a custom region is drawn, users can then open a custom region in the Tables feature to see aggregated counts or list of geographies that make up the custom region; or open in Reports to get aggregated numbers.

A custom region can contain any geography and cross multiple geographic boundaries and boundary types; we decided to create a blog series and review some of the unique rules for custom regions to make sense of how data is aggregated and how custom regions display data.

The Geography Steps – The geography used to aggregate data for a custom region is determined by the size of the custom region, which in turn determines the zoom level the custom region displays at. When you open a custom region, the location of the zoom bar will determine what geography by default will be used to aggregate data. This is also called the default zoom level.

The Zoom Bar on the right shows the numerical scale used for identifying the current zoom level on the map. The zoom level of zero (0) at the bottom is the farthest zoomed out (usually displaying the US and data by states) and 15 at the top is the closest zoomed in (this will show street level and data at blockgroups). 2 is the default zoom level when you first open PolicyMap.

GeoSteps is a term used to determine what geography data can be downloaded at using See Values or what default geography is used for aggregation in Reports. The chart below shows the GeoSteps used for 2000/2010 Census and American Community Survey data. Between zoom levels 12-15 (the top most zoom levels of the Zoom Bar), blockgroups will be used to aggregate data as a default. After the zoom level of 12, census tracts would be the default geography, then counties will be the default at level 8, and finally state level data after zoom level 5.

• 12: Block Group
• 08: Census Tract, Block Group
• 05: County, Census Tract, Block Group
• 00: State, County, Census Tract, Block Group

In the first example on the left, the custom region’s default zoom level is at 12 which would mean that the green highlighted census tracts will be used as the default geographies when aggregating data in reports or shown in Tables.
   
The second example on the right, the custom region is much larger in geographic size encompassing many counties near Chicago, IL so the default zoom level when loading the custom region is 6. This means that counties will be the default geography used to aggregate data and the green highlighted counties will be used for aggregation in reports and tables.

A couple of the reasons for the GeoSteps:

• To make PolicyMap fast and responsive to users, we needed to scale the amount of resources used when aggregating data so the GeoStep allowed the program to select larger geographies that covered more area to aggregate by. (For example, it’s faster to aggregate data for the 67 counties of Pennsylvania than the 10,387 blockgroups)
• Another reason was to help users make sense the geographies that make up a location. (For example, it’s easier understand a list of data for the 50 states that make up the US, than a list of the +200,000 blockgroups in the US)

On the latter point, keep an eye out for our upcoming releases as we plan to give users the ability to choose the geography used to aggregate reports and eventually choose to the geography to download in the Tables feature also.

In our final Custom Region blog entry, we will talk about the unique rules accompanying the ability to assemble custom regions.

To read a full guide on all features on PolicyMap, please look at our Primer available here. If you wanted to know more about a feature or topic, send your request to info@policymap.com subject “Did you Know…”

Sincerely,
The PolicyMap Team

Did you know the custom region feature for subscribers gives users the ability to draw right on top of the map to create their own target areas. Once a custom region is drawn, users can then open a custom region in the Tables feature to see aggregated counts or list of geographies that make up the custom region; or open in Reports to get aggregated numbers.

A custom region can contain any geography and cross multiple geographic boundaries and boundary types; we decided to create a blog serie and review some of the unique rules for custom regions to make sense of how data is aggregated and how custom regions display data.

The 50% Rule – For a geography to be included in the aggregation of a report or table, at least 50% of a geography must be contained by a custom region. This is a helpful rule for creating a radius custom region or radius report. PolicyMap will only use the geographies that have at least 50% of its area contained within the radius boundary for aggregation in a report or table. The 50% Rule also helps when drawing a custom region, since users do not have to be fully accurate in the borders. As long as the drawn border does not cross to contain more than 50% of a geography, it will then not be included in the aggregation.

In the first example on the right, only the green shaded census tracts (38.02, 38.03, 37.02, 35.01, & 34.01) would be used when aggregating data. Tracts 37.01, 35.02, and 34.02 do not have at least 50% of their area contained within the radius custom region.

In the second example below, we have drawn a custom region following streets but these streets do not correspond to the underlying census tract boundaries. Because of the 50% Rule, our custom region will use the green highlighted census tracts (37.02, 34.01, 33.01, 34.02, & 33.02) when aggregating data, while 36.01, 38.03, and 35.01 are not included since at least 50% of their area are not contained within the custom region.

Because there is not a logical or accurate way to divide the data for a geography that is divided by the border of a custom region, we feel that the 50% Rule identifies the areas that a user most likely wanted to collect data for.

In our next Custom Region blog entry, we will talk about the geography rule which determines what geographic boundary is used when aggregating a custom region.

To read a full guide on all features on PolicyMap, please look at our Primer available here. If you wanted to know more about a feature or topic, send your request to info@policymap.com subject “Did you Know…”

Sincerely,
The PolicyMap Team

We wanted to review some of the unique ways subscribers can use the Analytics features.

Sometimes when working with data, you are looking to find places that meet a certain criteria or range of a data layer. The Analytics can be used to query a data layer to find any location or locations that meets a specific range. For example, do you want to find all the school districts in Oregon that had over 75% of students participating in a Free and Reduce Lunch program? To create this query:

• Go to Analytics on PolicyMap
• Set Oregon as your location in the Set Location bar
• Load the data under Money & Income > Free and Reduce Lunch
• In the legend, set the range on the left of the map to 75% to 99.59%
• This will show all school districts that have more than 75% of students in the program
• Select the Download Place List option and choose Oregon, and give the list a custom name
• This will generate a list of the 10 school districts that meet the set threshold.  See list of Oregon School Districts

Would you want an example which queries a smaller geography size? How about looking to find tracts that have housing prices within a median home sale range of $150,000 to $175,000 in the Suffolk county Boston area. The Analytics is a quick way to query and find these tracts. To create this query:

• Go to Analytics on PolicyMap
• Set Suffolk, MA (county) as your location
• Load the data under Real Estate Analysis > Home Sale Data > Quarterly > Home Sales
• In the legend, change the default variable from number (or count) to median
• Set the median price range to $150,000 and $175,000
• Select the Download Place List option and select Massachusetts, give the list a custom name
• This list will generate the 4 tracts in Suffolk county that meet the range of median home sale price. See list of homes in Suffolk County

As you can see, the Analytics can be a very unique tool that allows users to find a list of locations that need to meet just one data indicator. In our next blog post on Analytics, we will review how users can use the feature to query addresses that fall into locations that meet an Analytic.

To read a full guide on all features on PolicyMap, please look at our Primer available here. If you wanted to know more about a feature or topic, send your request to info@policymap.com subject “Did you Know…”

Sincerely,
The PolicyMap Team

Did you know the Tables feature allows you to view data as a bar graph and chart, that can then compare data across multiple geographies; unlike the Maps feature which demonstrates a visual comparison of data across neighboring communities and borders. Parts of this feature are only available to subscribers.

Users have two ways to create a Table. The simplest way is to click the orange button at the top left of the page and begin entering locations in the Set Location bar and load data from the Add Data Layer tabs.


(The Tables page after selecting See Values from the Info Bubble on the Maps page, now shows all geographies and data layer.)

You can also use the See Tables feature in the Info Bubble on the map page. When created from the Info Bubble, the table will also load the data layer from the map and all of the geographies in the Info Bubble.

You can then use the Set Location to add additional locations to compare in your table. Click in the Set Location box and enter a location, pressing the Go button after each entry. As you add more locations, they will appear in both the table and the bar graph (if a data layer is already loaded). You can delete any location from your table by clicking on the grey button next to the name of that location.

The Tables page work similar to the Maps page. Once you have your list of geographies to compare, you can then change the data layer you are viewing by using the Add Data Layer feature to switch. Each time you change the Data Layer or toggle the Legend, the locations you have in your table or chart will remain the same and the values for each geography will change. Note: N/A for a geography indicates that data is not available. In some cases, data is not aggregated to specific types of geography, e.g. Zip Codes.

Once a data layer is loaded, users can use the legend to toggle through any available years and variables; and Tables have a unique ability to show the data through trends across multiple years. To view the trend select the year period beneath: View Trends Across Years:

(A trend chart of the percent of all home loans made that were insured by the government between 2004 till 2009.)

Subscribers and trial users have the ability to load custom regions onto a table to get aggregated counts. The Tables function does not calculate other variables (e.g. percentage, currency, or percent change), but will offer a See Values list to show the data for the geographies that make up the custom region. To add a custom region to your Table, select the drop down menu on the bottom left of your Table called My Custom Regions. Read more about See Values below or here.

Finally, just like maps, tables can be saved and printed. You can give your tables custom names which will be the title of your printout also, and then choose to print to a PDF, PNG or JPEG. All saved and printed tables be will saved to your My PolicyMap page.

Subscribers and trial users have very unique features that add more functionality to the Tables page.

See Values: Users can download a complete spreadsheet of data for any location from the Tables page. This allows you to download all the values of data for all the geographies that make up an area; for instance, you can see all the values of each county in a state, zip codes in a city, census tracts in a county, etc. In the example below, See Values will show the population of all the states which make up the US, or population of each county that make up the state of Oregon, census tracts for the city of Portland, and blockgroups for the census tract.

If you are then looking to download data for census tracts in your neighborhood, add the geography larger than a census tract (e.g. city, county, zip code, etc) in the Set Location bar and the See Values option will list all the tracts in that geography as well as the data.

Users can also download data for custom regions or geographies without an aggregated value. If your location has an N/A as the value, the See Value function will then give you the ability to download the data for the geographies that make up the location. See Values function works in two unique ways for custom regions and prefined boundaries like school and state districts.

• If your location is larger than the smallest geography in the dataset, the See Values function will download the all the geographies contained within your location. (e.g. your location is a county and the data is available at the census tract level).
• If your location is smaller than the smallest geography available in the dataset, the See Values function will download the geographies that touches your location. (e.g. your location is a zip code and the data is only available at the county level).

Note: Licensing agreements prohibit PolicyMap from making all datasets available for download.

See List: The See List feature will display all the addresses from a point dataset that are contained in a geography. Users can then download a CSV file which will contain all the data for the site.

Ranking: The Ranking feature allows subscribers and trial users to see where a location ranks among other geographies within a single dataset. Rankings will give you the ranking of the location selected, allow you to see those that rank above and below it and will also give you the top 10 and bottom 10 locations in that dataset.

To read a full guide on all features on PolicyMap, please look at our Primer available here. If you wanted to know more about a feature or topic, send your request to info@policymap.com subject “Did you Know…”

Sincerely,
The PolicyMap Team

Did you know when a data layer is added, the Legend will display specific information about the current data layer (e.g. Year, Variable, Range Values, etc) and the range for each color on the map. The legend also gives you the ability to fully customize the map by; changing the year, how the data is displayed by changing the variable, making your own custom ranges, and host of other features.

Depending on the data layer added, you can toggle between available years, quarters, or even months. Some years are only available to subscribers and trial users.

Changing the variable will change what data is displayed on the map. Each data layer might have specific and unique variables. You can toggle between different variables, including the number (#), median value ($), percent (%), or even the change across years (%Ch) depending on the data layer displayed.

PolicyMap displays data at different geography levels; the zoom level determines what geography the data on the map is shaded by. For example, when looking at the nation, data is shaded by state. As you zoom in, the geography the data is shaded might change to the county, zip code, census tract, and finally block group level as you zoom further in; this also depends on the availability of the data at that geography for each data layer. A great place to see what geographies each data layer is available at is the Our Data page.

The “shade by” pull down menu gives you the ability to change the geography at which the current data layer is shaded. For example, you can create maps of Philadelphia County by zip code or city, instead of the default shade level of census tracts.

The legend will contain the data source for the data being displayed. Whenever possible, the source is a presented as a live link to our Data Directory with more information about that source.

The Clear Data Layer option will remove the current thematic data layer but keep you zoomed at your current location and keep any point dataset from Add Site on the map.

Subscribers and trial users have the ability to create custom values for each range. To customize click Edit Ranges, and define the values for each range. When you are done editing your ranges, click Apply to show the custom ranges on the map. Restore Defaults will revert cut points back to default.

This unique feature allows a user to define their own ranges for how data is shown on the map. The Edit Ranges can be used for any variable in PolicyMap. Users can create custom ranges for income, percentages, percent changes, and much more. For example, do you want to find

Subscribers or trial users can also change the color spectrum used on the shaded map. If you do not like our default purple color palette, then you can choose the olive or blue. We will have more added soon.


Another great feature for subscribers and trial users is the ability to increase or decrease the number of ranges shown on the map using the pull down menu. This is helpful if you want to simply the ranges of data or if you need to show more complexity in the shading. Also, 2-3 color ranges are good for printing in black and white.




Just remember, when you initially load a thematic data layer on PolicyMap, you will see the default settings so make sure check the legend for other options to customized the data layer. To read a full guide on all features on PolicyMap, please look at our Primer available here.

If you wanted to know more about a feature or topic, send your request to info@policymap.com subject “Did you Know…”

Sincerely,
The PolicyMap Team

Did you know after loading a point (address level) dataset from the Add Sites menu, users can use the filter feature to show only address(es) that match a specific indicator. To use the filter option, select the icon in the Add Sites legend of a loaded dataset and a menu of filter options will appear, you then simply select the indicator you want to filter by. For example, if you load the Schools and Libraries > Schools dataset, you can then choose to filter and show only “public charter” schools. Selecting this filter for schools will remove public and private schools and only show locations of public charter schools.

(Note: not all point datasets will have filter options so look for the icon)

If a point (address level) dataset has multiple indicators, users can then select multiple filters. Another example would be if you load the Federal Housing > HUD Multifamily dataset and open the Info Bubble, you will see multiple tabs with lots of data for each multifamily site. Most of the indicators for each locations can be used as filters allowing users to find a specific group of addresses. So with the HUD Multifamily data, users can select to show addresses with a “Contract Status” of active AND an “Owner Company Type” of non-profit. The map will now only show address that match the two indicators. Select the icon to remove any filters selected.

Finally, the “color code all” option is our most unique way to filter addresses on the map. This option will display each address by specific color and each color will represent a type of data for the indicator selected. For example, load Health > Hospitals and select the “color code all” option for Faculty Type. This will now show each type of facility by their colors shown in the Add Sites legend; orange are Childrens, white is Short Term, green is Long Term, and so forth.

If you wanted to know more about a feature or topic, send your request to info@policymap.com subject “Did you Know…”

Sincerely,
The PolicyMap Team

Did you know subscribers and trial users can generate a detailed report for a pre-defined location, radius around an address, or custom region. PolicyMap built each report by grouping together similar datasets that help describe a location. Users can generate as many reports for as many locations needed without additional costs. All reports use the latest data available in PolicyMap, so what you see on the maps and tables, can quickly be turned into a report.

First, choose the type of report you wish to generate. Each report was created with the idea that the data in a report will better describe the area you selected. Here are descriptions of each report:

• The Community Profile is a snapshot of life in area, including information on its population, racial composition, age, income, workforce, and much more. See a sample Community Profile report here.
• The Rental Housing Report includes rent information by bedroom size, income, and affordability data. See a sample rental report here.
• The IRS Tax Report offers information about the types of deductions residents make on their income tax returns. For example, you can find out how many tax filers are making contributions to an IRA, contributing to charities, or claiming the EITC. See a sample IRS report here.
• The HDMA Report is a summary of the number, typical amount, and type of home mortgages origins, including high-cost lending activity and high interest loans by race or ethnicity. See a sample HMDA report here.
• The Home Sale Report provides a summary of the number of sales, median sale amount, aggregate sale amount, and loan-to-value ratio for 2006-2009 annually and for all quarters of 2007, 2008, and 2009, along with housing market trends between 2000 and 2009. See a sample home sale report here.
• The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia HMDA report is a series of detailed data tables from HMDA, designed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. This report focuses on the number, median amount, and percent of originated loans by various characteristics, including government insurance, rate spread, loan type, loan purpose, and race of loan applicant.

Once you have selected which report to generate, you can decide what area the report will generate. There are many unique ways to select or create that area:

Pre-defined Locations – To generate a report based on a pre-defined location such as a state, county or census tract, click “Pre-defined Location”. Select a location by entering a zip code, city, state, county or other geography. (A pre-defined geography cannot be an address). You can also generate a report for census tracts, Congressional and State districts, school districts, and Metro Areas. Use these tabs to find one of these areas just as you would on the Map page. Click GO and then click the Generate Report button on the page that follows.

Radius – To generate a report for the area around an address, click “Radius”. Specify the center of the radius by typing in an address. Enter the full address; including zip code and click Go. Your report area, with a default radius of half a mile (0.5), will appear on the map. You can change the size of the radius by typing in a new size in the “specify radius” box at the top of the page. Click GO. The map will redraw with the radius you have chosen as a highlighted orange region. When you are ready to create the report, click Generate Report.

Custom Region – To create a report based on a region of your choosing, click “Custom Region”. You can generate a report for a custom region you have already created and saved, or create a new one. To pull up a previously saved custom region, select from the My Saved Custom Regions drop down menu. Draw Custom Region will allow you to draw a new custom region for the report.

To create a Custom Region from the Reports page, set the location to the general area where you wish to draw by typing in a zip code, state, city or select a predefine location from the tabs in the Set Location bar. Click GO. Choose how you want to build the custom region by; Draw on top of the map, Assemble predefine geographies, or as a Radius around an address. Follow the instructions for each type of custom region you want to create and click Generate Report when you are done.

Polygon Region – Premium subscribers have the ability to upload prebuilt custom regions called Polygons. To generate a Polygon report, premium subscribers should load their data from Add Sites and selected from the icon of the polygon and choose the option to generate a polygon report or a radius of a polygon. If you choose a radius report, the specified center will be the longitude and latitude of the centroid for the polygon.

Finally, once you have generated your report, you can save it to access at a later time or print a PDF copy to share. All saved and printed reports will be available in your My PolicyMap section.

Look for new upcoming report features like the option to quickly copy each section and paste into your work, the ability to choose what geography of data each section uses to aggregate, or the very dynamic report builder. Or if you have a suggestion or request on a feature, please contact us at pmap@policymap.com or call us at (866) 923-MAPS.

Did you know you can now search for specific locations to address level datasets from Add Sites? With Add Sites, users can display locations for a variety of datasets including schools, libraries, grocery locations, hospitals, health care locations, and much more. You can read more about all of our available datasets on our blog (Add Sites 2). Each dataset will display as unique icons on the map and users can click an icon to open the Info Bubble and learn more information for that point.

We have just added the ability to search for the name of any location. After you load a point/address level dataset, select the radio button (circle) for each dataset to open the search bar. Simply enter the name of the location that you are searching for and select GO. This will zoom to the point/address and open the Info Bubble for more information.

The search feature also uses predictive text, so entering the first 3 letters of a location will display a list of all locations the start with the 3 letters. This is a very helpful if you are not familiar with the exact name of a location.

Please note, the search function will only work on one dataset at a time (the dataset which has the radio button selected). If you have multiple datasets loaded, just select the radio button for the dataset you wish to search in.

Do you have a widget with your data on it? Subscribers that have datasets already loaded onto PolicyMap can have this feature added. Please contact us to update your widgets today.

If you wanted to know more about a feature or topic, send your request to info@policymap.com subject “Did you Know…”

Sincerely,
The PolicyMap Team