Prepare yourself to be floored: Google Maps keeps evolving

Prepare yourself to be floored:




Google Maps keeps evolving, expanding the ability to drill down into granular detail. The latest updated trick? Mapping foreclosures for sale.



This great and terrible Google trick has been around at least since 2008 — but it seems to have become much more robust earlier this year (See Dregs of the Future‘s post in January 2010).



Our friends at Chart Porn — a blog that got its name from one of our posts (honest!) — remind us of this, with a step-by-step lesson of how to use Google maps:



Google Maps Foreclosure Listings



1. Punch in any US address into Google Maps.



2. Your options are Earth, Satellite, Map, Traffic and . . . More. (Select “More”)



3. The drop down menu gives you a check box option for “Real Estate.”



4. The left column will give you several options (You may have to select “Show Options”)



5. Check the box marked “Foreclosure.”



I wanted to demonstrate the full extent of Foreclosures in the US, so after setting GMaps on foreclosure listings, I slowly zoomed out of the map. Voila! Most foreclosures that are for sale in the USA are now showing on your screen.



Note: This map does not reveal any of the millions of REOs that have already been sold by the banks that hold them.



But the maps do reveal an entire nation littered with foreclosure sales. It is an ugly and graphic depiction of how much inventory is out there, and why housing is stillmany years away from being healthy.



Let’s try to zoom in and see exactly the extent of foreclosures in Florida, one of the biggest boom & bust regions.



(Click the image to enlarge . . . The link for each Google Map is below each screenshot)



>



Welcome to Foreclosureland:

(America seems to have caught the Measles; Bad real estate deals are apparently contagious)



Click for Google Map





>



Lets zoom the map on to the state of Florida

(A state that knows a thing or two about bad real estate)



Click for Google Map



>



Then we can zoom closer — to South Florida

(Thank goodness the Everglades stemmed the tide of foreclosures!)



Click for Google Map



>



Zoom a bit more . . . Welcome to Miami!

(Playground to wealthy South Americans, Europeans, and other defaulters)



Click for Google Map



>



Let’s Go Shopping . . . On Miami Beach!

(I’m sure easy financing is still available)



Click for Google Map



>



The repercussions of the Housing boom & bust are likely to continue for years to come.





~~~



UPDATE: December 9th, 2010 10:15am



Jonathan Miller notes his wife’s family comes from Detroit, where the map is nearly solid RED :



Click for larger updated Detroit map





PERMALINK

Category: Foreclosures, Real Estate, Web/Tech.

De.li.cious Digg this! Technorati Reddit Newsvine Stumble Facebook 21 Responses to “Google Map Foreclosure Tricks”

Bruman Says:



December 9th, 2010 at 7:11 am

Wow! This is really clever! I tip my hat to your creativity (or ChartPorn’s).



The only real issue is that it’s hard to get a sense of what are “normal” rates of spotty google maps. Sure, it looks like a lot, and all the news flow suggests that it is a lot, but what would it have looked like in 2004? I suspect that it would still be surprisingly spotty, even if it’s not quite like this.



I suppose one can look at the national foreclosure rate and try to “thin out” the dots based on how the present foreclosure rates compare with past ones. And yet, there is likely a spatial correlation between foreclosure rates and foreclosure locations that mean it’s not quite as simple as that.



gd Says:



December 9th, 2010 at 7:34 am

Miami Beach may be busy, but a quick look at wealthy areas outside Boston (Concord, Carlisle, Wayland, Weston) shows pretty clean. Even some Boomer/McMansion suburbs like Westford are fairly free, and the few there seem to be where I know some oldtime neighborhoods are, e.g. boarding houses converted to apartments around long-gone mill villages. The spots having cruddy condo conversion apartment buildings in good school districts (Acton) are clustered largely on those buildings. It’s not all 100%, but a clearer trend than I would have expected with a few minutes inspection. If I was a budding sociologist or economist, I’d have a lifetime of work on wealth distribution mapped out. There’ll be blood in the streets if the tea party rank and file ever figure out what’s really going on.



Hot Links: Christmas 1992 The Reformed Broker Says:



December 9th, 2010 at 8:00 am

[...] You'll be blown away by the Google Maps view of Foreclosureland. (TBP) [...]



Transor Z Says:



December 9th, 2010 at 8:12 am

The way it usually works here in Mass. is that, if you go to a foreclosure auction to buy RRE, it typically takes place right in front of the property. The bank’s rep usually starts the bidding at the outstanding mortgage balance plus $1. You have to do your homework to find places (a) you’re genuinely interested in buying and (b) that aren’t so underwater as to make it worth your while to bid. Note that there will probably be other potential buyers there with the same thought, a number of whom are experienced hands on the foreclosure purchase trail.



So the bank normally ends up buying back the property and hiring a custodial service to look after the place/make basic repairs while they hold onto it. The opportunity for good deals (at least here in Mass.) tends to be when the house then goes on the market as a REO. At that point, like any other seller, the bank has to adjust asking price until they start to get nibbles.



rktbrkr Says:



December 9th, 2010 at 8:13 am

The foreclosure dots are going to be heavy in areas where there were a lot of turnovers during the bubble years of peak prices, a big gated community in S FL that was sold out in the 2002-2007 timespan is going to be a sea of red.REO sales are largely corked up now but there will be a deluge soon, especially as the banks feel a squeeze on their cash flows – sort of a twisted version of a land rush



sorry for the double post, funny how Bernanke twists his description to suit his purposes, yes we have no bananas…yes we are not printing currency we are increasing the money supply which is effectively printing currency but no we are not literally printing currency – and you can trust us to know exactly when to reverse our policy of not actually printing currency…



Lee Adler Says:



December 9th, 2010 at 8:48 am

The New York Fed’s interactive mortgage and credit maps are fun.

http://data.newyorkfed.org/creditconditionsmap/



Mark E Hoffer Says:



December 9th, 2010 at 8:55 am

this is a nice example of ‘Data Analytics’..



hybrid these results with what this Co. (as ex.) http://www.asterdata.com/ does..



LSS: this, the GOOG Maps Mash-up is, in more ways than one, just, the ’30,000 ft.-view’.

~~



and, contra to an earlier Post, on “Quants”, these are the ‘Data Jockeys’ to pay attention to–ask Jim Simons, see if he agrees..



curbyourrisk Says:



December 9th, 2010 at 9:12 am

Great tool…….WOW…..Farmingdale is loaded. Funny, when I looked up at the North Shore of Long Island (where all the beautiful people live)…..NONE!!! But then again, they are beter than the rest of us.



rktbrkr Says:



December 9th, 2010 at 9:32 am

Fannie has an online listing of their REOs, only 3% downpayment required with 3.5% allowance for owner-occupied – so essentially nothing down. No appraisal or mortgage ins required. Nothing said about title ins. Special financing for renovations/repairs.



I believe there will be at least one more wave of markdowns in the sand states once the foreclosure train regains momentum, the normal areas might be near bottom now as long as we can hold at 90% employment.



If BB screws up and mortgage rates soar then it’s good night Irene for homeowers even at this level



http://www.homepath.com/



beaufou Says:



December 9th, 2010 at 9:32 am

Can you google map the notes for those foreclosures?



Livermore Shimervore Says:



December 9th, 2010 at 10:33 am

interesting: Click on both the “For Sale” and “Foreclosure” check boxes and then unclick “For Sale”. Very different maps.



curbyourrisk Says:



December 9th, 2010 at 11:28 am

But, but Barry said the bottom was in/near in housing…



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-09/homes-in-u-s-poised-to-lose-1-7-trillion-in-value-this-year-zillow-says.html



Mannwich Says:



December 9th, 2010 at 12:13 pm

This one is a must-read today:



http://www.correntewire.com/why_obama_tax_deal_republicans_insane



louis Says:



December 9th, 2010 at 1:16 pm

Move along, these aren’t the dots your looking for – Que Ostrich.



Google Maps adds Foreclosure Results » The Art of Short Sales Says:



December 9th, 2010 at 3:14 pm

[...] interesting find over at The Big Picture, detailing how to use Google Maps to find foreclosures: Google Maps keeps evolving, expanding the ability to drill down into granular detail. The latest [...]



Use a Google Maps Filter to See Nearby Foreclosures [Real Estate]
Berry Live Says:



December 9th, 2010 at 4:02 pm

[...] state of the economy, and for seeing what homes go for when they’ve been left in the wind. Google Map Foreclosure Tricks [The Big Picture via BoingBoing [...]



Foreclosure Listing On Google Maps? « Daniel's Rants & Raves Says:



December 9th, 2010 at 5:24 pm

[...] I know Google Maps can be used to see directions to some place in the area you never been to, you can see street views of places, and so many other wonderful uses for Google Maps but now you can actually check the Foreclosures in a particular area using Google’s Map Service which is crazy, check out this article for more Details HERE. [...]



FMT Says:



December 9th, 2010 at 6:56 pm

Immensely sad to reflect on the family stress and pain many of these dots will represent.



michael Says:



December 9th, 2010 at 11:06 pm

its probably worth noting that even this badly understates the problem. a home across the street from me was short-sold and the family lost all of their equity and the money’s for a major addition they had put into it; they of course aren’t shown. also, the house next to them went through foreclosure. its since been bought and a new family is living there. since its not currently in foreclosure, its not displayed either.



Rob Says:



December 9th, 2010 at 11:07 pm

Been having fun looking at foreclosure properties in my area this morning.

Didn’t know that was even a possibility on GM.



Stumbled upon something that was really cool that I’ve never seen before.

Well sort of. If you look at a property using the “street view” then you

can checkout the area around the property. (yeah, bear with me, I know that

isn’t “new”) But while you looking at it in street view, right mouse click

on the image and select “3D mode on.” Now that’s bad ass.



I use to do mechanical design work and our computer did a similar “trick” as

this. When you were designing a 3D part you could put it in 3D mode and the

part you were designing became 3D (with the glasses of course) While it was

a super nifty trick, it didn’t have much purpose in the design process.

Similar to this street view thing I guess, really nifty but not much

purpose…. yet.



In case the 3D thing isn’t available everywhere, here’s the property I was

looking at.



http://maps.google.com/maps?



Rob



TheCenterLane Says:



December 10th, 2010 at 3:51 am

I wouldn’t get too excited about that unit at 3425 Collins Ave. I used to live right nearby for 9 years.

Even in this depressed market: You get what you pay for.

Caveat Emptor. ‘Nuff said.