What’s New on PolicyMap for July 2013?

The American Community Survey

American Community Survey (ACS) indicators for 2007-2011 are now available on PolicyMap! Check out these latest estimates on home values, incomes, foreign born populations and more! You'll find them throughout the Add Data Layer menu in the maps page and incorporated into the Community Profile report. Sign up for one of our upcoming webinars to learn more.


New Datasets on PolicyMap

NSP3 Foreclosure Risk Scores: The third round of foreclosure risk scores from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program within the Department of Housing and Urban Development is now available on PolicyMap. This score identifies communities with high numbers of foreclosed and/or vacant homes within the neighborhoods with the highest concentrations of foreclosures, delinquent loans, and subprime loans. The NSP3 score ranges from 1 to 20, with a higher number indicating greater need. Find this under the Federal Guidelines tab under NSP3 Data Sets.

Learn more about this score and how communities across the country will use it in their applications to HUD.

New! Rural and Underserved Counties: These designations are now available in the Federal Guidelines tab under CFPB Rural and Underserved Counties. Rural counties are defined by using the USDA Economic Research Service's urban influence codes, and underserved counties are defined by reference to data collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). This data comes from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.


Address/Point Data Updates

Nurse Practitioner Health Clinics: This data, from the National Nursing Center Consortium, is now updated. Find location information for these clinics in the Add Sites section within the Health menu.

School Performance Scores: Performance data for schools across the country, as reported by GreatSchools, is now updated and available for all public and some charter schools. Performance includes a school rating (as given by GreatSchools), and standardized test results for each school. You'll find this address-level data under the Add Sites menu in Schools & Libraries. Because it is a proprietary dataset, it is available for PolicyMap subscribers only. (Try out a subscription for free for 7-days!)
SchoolPerformance


Data Updates

Average SNAP (Food Stamps) Benefit by County:
You'll now find the dollar amount of SNAP benefits (previously known as Food Stamps), by county, from 2000-2011. You can access this data under the Health tab in the Add Data Layer menu.

Federal Block Grant Allocations for FY 2013:
Turn to PolicyMap to find the amount of federal block grant allocations from HUD for areas across the country for each of the last 5 years. This includes allocations for major funding programs: Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), HOME, Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA), and Emergency Shelter Grants (ESG).

Unemployment:
April unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is now on PolicyMap. You can access this data in the Jobs & Economy tab, under Unemployment (BLS).

Building Permits:
Residential building permit data from the Census Bureau for the months of January, February, and March 2013, as well as the year of 2012 is now on PolicyMap. You’ll find this in the Real Estate Analysis tab, under Residential Building Permits.

HUD’s A Picture of Subsidized Households:
This updated data from HUD shows the shows numbers and demographic characteristics of people living in housing subsidized by HUD programs, including Section 8 vouchers, as of 2009. It can be found in the Owners & Renters menu, under Subsidized Households.


The Reinvestment Fund's Market Value Analysis (MVA)

TRF's latest Market Value Analysis for Philadelphia (2011):
TRF's analysis of Philadelphia's real estate market in 2011 distinguished nine market types in the study area. Areas within each market type are statistically similar across a number of indicators including sale price, variability of sale price, vacancy, commercial properties, foreclosures, public housing and owner occupancy. You can find it in the TRF Analytics tab.

TRF's first Market Value Analysis for Milwaukee, WI (2013):
Similar to the Philadelphia MVA, TRF's 2013 analysis of Milwaukee's real estate market distinguished nine market types in the study area. You can find it in the TRF Analytics tab (and a full description of what each of the categories means in the Data Directory).


What's the biggest thing PolicyMap has done that you might not have heard of? Stay tuned. Or visit our blog to learn about new features and data updates faster!

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