2009 Case-Shiller Index Visualized with Unemployment and VC Investment

Yesterday, Standard and Poors released their annual index of the nations 20 largest real estate markets. Called the Case-Shiller index, it is essentially the S&P 500 of the real estate market. Taking advantage of this release, as well as the Crunchbase VC and Unemployment data we have previously collected, we compiled a viz that compares all three. Please feel free to download the workbook and do your own analysis with Tableau Public.

As you can see, there is an extremely strong correlation between unemployment and housing prices. Those without jobs may be foreclosed on or sell their homes, driving prices down. The relationship between VC investment and the CS index is even more interesting. Although VC Investment is a relatively small part of total investment, it can be thought of as an indicator of entrepreneurship and activity in each city. Clearly, there is a strong relationship between this value and home prices.

Interactivity — Having all three sheets linked together makes analysis much easier.

Simplicity — It does not need six paragraphs to explain itself. It's obvious!