He's Got Your Numbers

A ROOM WITH A VIEW: Robert Cheetham's real estate software assembles city neighborhood info from all kinds of databases. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

A new real estate database can help you find the perfect place by disclosing facts that brokers can't (or won't) tell you.

by Bruce Schimmel

Though Robert Cheetham and his wife love the home they bought in Fairmount a couple of years ago, finding it was a struggle. "The experience of trying to find a home that met our needs was beginning to suck," says the 36-year-old software engineer.

The Cheethams' needs were hardly unique. Not owning a car, they wanted a short walk to the grocery store, to restaurants and other city amenities. Newly married and without children, they did not consider schools as a factor. They also wanted a safe and leafy neighborhood. And eventually, they found it.

But in retrospect, Cheetham says he's "confident that we overpaid." And now, he's got the charts, graphs and data to prove it.

Years after his less-than-pleasurable house search, Cheetham created Real Estate Explorer (REX), a database that matches lifestyles to Philadelphia neighborhoods and is available to the general public. Now, the Penn-trained digital cartographer knows more about his own neighborhood than even the Philadelphia Police, whose crime-mapping software he helped author.

Cheetham's small data-mapping company, Avencia, has the look of a thirtysomething office, only updated with banks of computer screens, walls of whiteboard and a workspace wrapped in wiring. Cheetham is a serious map-head. Behind him is a framed, historical map showing areas of poverty in London in the 19th century, an innovation in its own time. The modern tool he's created could likewise radically change the way people hunt for homes.

For $20 a month, REX users can assemble custom maps using any combination of factors. The data is all public information and generally available, but this is the first time it's been brought together in one place.

From the city, Cheetham assembled years of real estate sales, so he can say for sure that he bought at the top of the market. Users can map where all the schools are, public and private. Bus stops, rec centers, grocery stores, libraries, big parks and pocket parks. Museums, theaters and restaurants. From satellite photos, REX will display how thickly the trees are planted in a particular neighborhood, how "green" it is. (Neighborhoods that are leafy are not only more pleasant, but according to a just-released Wharton study, are consistently better investments. See "Green Days" on page 71.)

There's also fresh data from the 2000 census that you won't—or can't—hear about from a real estate broker because it could be considered discriminatory. REX tracks if there are high-achieving students in the neighborhood, whether there's mostly young people, old people or mixed, and you can even find out if there are lots of same-sex partnership households nearby.

Additionally, REX has pre-set lifestyle templates for singles, couples with or without children, empty nesters, gay couples, retirees and people like Cheetham who don't own a car.

Still, says Cheetham, there is some info you won't find in REX, even if it is available.

"We could have put in racial data, but we did not," he says, shaking his head. "Some people might make housing decisions on that basis, and we didn't want to make it easier for them to do it."

On the horizon are new databases, some of which Cheetham finds fascinating.

"There's even a database out, just before the election, that could tell you who [in your neighborhood] contributed, and how much to which candidates," tracking red and blue voters, block by block.