Google Fusion Map of Demonstration Oregon Metro Area Zip Code Level Voucher Rents vs Actual FY 2011 2 BR FMR's.

HUD has recently opened the process for Metro PHA's  to participate in a project to demonstrate the use of small area (zip code level) Fair Market Rents. 

HUD's Federal Register Request for Participation Notice, with a June 6, 2011 deadline, is HERE. The demonstration is ONLY available to Metro PHA's and HUD does NOT plan on using small area FMR's in non metro counties. HUD has published the current zip code level rents that would be used in this demonstration in an Excel file HERE. 

To demonstrate how Google Fusion can help visualize this data, I created the embedded map below [Link to Google Fusion table used to create the map is HERE] which shows a comparison of metro zip code level 2 BR rents vs FY 2011 2 BR Fair Market rents by Oregon Zip Code. [You may need a Google account to access the Google Fusion table].

The map color code used for the demonstration zip code rent vs the FMR rent

• Up to 90% of FMR=Red
• 90% to 100% of FMR=Yellow
• 100 to 120% of FMR=Blue
• 120+ of FMR=Green

If you click on any zip code in the map you will see the FY 2011 2 Bedroom FMR by bedroom size, the Zip Code based 2 Bedroom FMR, and the ratio of the latter to the former.

In addition to helping visualize the voucher data, this Google Fusion work product provides a concrete contemporary example of how boundary maps in Google Fusion can be combined with other topical information, so long as there is a common geo field in the boundary and in the topical data files. [Did I also mention there is no cost for the software to do this?].

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.