PolicyMap – Killer tool for real estate

I just found out about PolicyMap a new service that lets you map an insane amount of data by region on all subjects ranging from mortgage originations, neighborhood crime stats and income demographics (and tons more). This could become a killer tool for homeowners looking to buy a home and for real estate agents and mortgage originators to use for everything from farming to advising clients. It can also be used by lenders to make risk assesments on properties and more.

Since I’m a tech geek at heart this site really appeals to me and could become a useful tool for you. It’s also an interesting toy to play around with to learn a bit about your neighborhood.

I pulled the below graph for Walnut Creek, CA that shows the percent of all purchase loans in the area that were made with subprime piggyback second financing. This data is pulled from lender’s HMDA reporting and broken down by census tract.

Let’s not overlook the scary fact that in 2006 more than 55% of all subprime purchase loans in the purple areas had piggyback 2nds. Of course this means that half of the subprime home purchases in these areas were made with zero down payment.