Long time readers will know I don’t post a whole lot of real estate data and charts. Why not? Because to be honest, they are a pain to create, and I’ve never been enthralled with simply embedding standard Excel charts.
Enter this slick new product I discovered at the Blog World Conference ”“ Tableau Software.
It allows a “publisher” (that would be me) to create interactive charts and interesting data displays for readers (that would be you).
For example, below are two graphics. The first is a pretty typical line graph that shows both Phoenix real estate sales over time, and the median Phoenix home value over that same time period (Jan 1999 ”“ Sept 2010 in this case). The second graphic represents the total number of homes by zip code, along with the percentage of homes that are bank owned homes listed for sale. The larger the dot, the more homes in the zip code, and the darker the shade of red, the higher the percentage of bank owned homes listed for sale.
Where the coolness kicks in is that you can hover your mouse over the charts and see the specific data values. As I get more versed in using the software, more interactivity will be available.
For me, this makes generating data displays much more fun than plodding away in Excel. For you, this will (in time and in theory) present you with data and information that is much more useful.
Poke around and let me know what you think!
The Phoenix Real Estate Guy was started by Jay Thompson, and I have a little blogging problem... he liked to say...
Awesome Jay and great timing. I was just looking at Excel charts yesterday and not looking forward to the hassle, cursing, and confusion. This looks like a wonderful solution and will go well with some minor modifications I want to make to the blog. Thanks.
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Tableau software is really cool. A while back I demo'd their full version and it didn't pencil for me in terms of price versus how much I would use it. Tableau Public is just right, though . . . a little learning curve but the result is very nice.
PS. Have a GREAT birthday on Monday . . . 🙂
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Hi Jay ~ I love my stats and am starting to get bored with the way I'm presenting them. This is really cool. I'll have to look into it some more. Nice job – I'm sure consumers will love it.
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Jay
We're a huge fan of Tableau. We're using it in our CRM system right now for business intelligence on the fly, and we're building a super secret system with it too 🙂 I'm glad to see that you found it and enjoy it!
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Jay,
Looking forward to finding out if you can put this information to good use. Looks a like a reasonable product I wouldn't create the charts without some ease of use.
Can this program do absorptions reports?
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Hi Jay, I've always found the charts tedious as well and I'm just not good at them. These look great and I'll be sure to check out this new product making this process easier for people like me! Thanks. Susan
I read about this on FOREM a few days ago and I just tried out my first graph! I must say, I'm VERY impressed with it so far. It offers data in such a way that it would result in a much better experience for visitors. Thanks for sharing, Jay.
Very nice charts. I am going to check into this. Our MLS system gives us some tools that do something similar but I want to find something out there that really sets my presentations apart. Thanks.
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Nice viz, Jay! Glad you like it. If anyone else is interested in getting started, check out the free training videos on our site and live trainings every Wednesday. Also tweet us @tableau if you're having any trouble and we'll help out. We love real estate data!
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Very nice! Where did the data come from for your graphs above? Did the data from from Tableau? Thanks.
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Thank you for the post, the charts provided are too impressive and knowledgeable also. Keep up the good work.
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Its amazing to see the trend from year 2000 to now.
Charts are not my favorite thing to do either. I have found it to be a real pain to convert statistics into a chart and put it into my site. I tried it before and ended up deleting it. I will have to try Tableau though. It looks like it does just about everything I can dream up. Thanks.
As a former math major I love creating and analyzing charts. As much as I love charts, my schedule does not allow me to create them and play with the data. So I think I just found my solution. Thanks Jay.
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I forget where I came across Tableau Public but it's something I've been meaning to get around to implementing on my site. It looks great. I think i'll make it a priority to do this weekend.
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Jay,
This is great stuff, but I found I could not get the embedding code to work. For some reason, in my WP blog, the code is being "stripped out" I guess. The only thing that will display is the Tableau link. If anyone has any ideas how to cure this, I would appreciate it.
Michael – The WP editor is notorious for stripping out code. It *might* work if you write the entire post first, then go into the HTML mode and copy/paste the Tableau code, and then save the post — without ever going back into the "Visual" mode. I use Microsoft LiveWriter to publish posts to my blogs, it handles code (and photos) much better than the native WP editor. (and it's free)
Jay,
Thanks, I was able to create a chart with your recommendation on the visual vs HTML mode. When I get it a little better looking I will post it for your readers to see what an "amateur" can create. Thanks for the tip on the MS Live Writer – that looks pretty helpful.
These charts are super cool. As I am sitting at my computer I can think of so many different ways a person can use a chart like this. Whether it's providing a learning experience to a class or figuring out when to buy a home, this chart can help people in so many situations. Hopefully they have one of these charts for the Orlando area.
Jay, I made the jump with Tableau. It's amazing. As easy or complex as you want. Thanks to you and Dean for the tip.
Wow, I'm totally blown away with how cool this tool is. It's also interesting to note the market stats for sales volume is trending up in your area, and looks like it'll be at about pre-bubble levels within a year or two at it's current pace.
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Super cool charts. I look forward to incorporating these in Raleigh!