Charting your Capitol Hill real estate strategy

If there's one thing this world is lacking, it's good neighborhood infographics. Redfin's new neighborhood real estate data page for Capitol Hill has some useful visualizations of the local market. If you're considering making a move, the charts provide an overview of what is happening out there -- kind of like those partly cloudy weather graphics on TV.

This inventory chart is pretty simple -- shows two fever lines tracking the number of houses and condos on the market. What do you know! There's a dramatic uptick in condos available in the area.

These next two are interesting gauges of price conditions in the area. The red one is for houses, the second blue one shows condos. Both track a comparison of the average list price vs. the average sold price in $/square feet over time. Basically, the graphs show two indicators of price -- what people have been paying recently and what they're going to be asked to pay going forward. In the red home chart, you can see that the list line has crossed the sold line earlier this year than it did last year indicating that the average home for sale is more expensive than it was last summer. Now all you daytraders can reapply your technical analysis abilities to the real estate market.

Finally, this last chart will give you a sense of shelf life and how likely the price of a house will be reduced by time on market. At this time, Capitol Hill homes that have been on the market for between 46-90 days are very likely to have had at least one reduction in price. So if you find one that hasn't, I guess you can now feel free to make a lower offer. Good luck with that.