The Lexington Housing Dashboard is a tool designed for visualizing and understanding high-level trends in housing in Lexington-Fayette County. It was developed by the 2014 Code for America Lexington fellows. The dashboard displays neighborhood-level data -- such as building permits, foreclosures, and code enforcement violations -- on a year-over-year basis, allowing users to not only see how neighborhoods compare to each other, but also how neighborhoods have changed over time. Data for the dashboard has been provided by the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government and the Fayette County Property Valuation Administrator.
The tool is built based on the development version of the Charlotte Quality of Life Dashbaord, built by Tobin Bradley for the City of Charlotte, NC, Mecklenburg County, and UNCC. That project is also in production and can be found on GitHub here. If you are interested in redeploying this for your city, see the Redepoying for Your City section on the project's GitHub Repo.
The Lexington Housing Dashboard includes housing code complaints, nuisance complaints, building permits, foreclosures, and average property value for each voting precinct in Lexington. Each of these datasets was determined to be an indicator of neighborhood health with respect to housing. Voting precincts were selected to represent neighborhoods because they cover all of Lexington, do not overlap, and more closely resemble neighborhood boundaries than census tracts or other available boundaries. They may not exactly match how people perceive the boundaries of their neighborhood, but are the most useful available geography for tracking and comparing information across Lexington.
The City of Lexington relies on the International Property Maintenance Code, which regulates the minimum maintenance requirements for existing buildings. The code is intended to "establish minimum maintenance standards for basic equipment, light, ventilation, heating, sanitation and fire safety," with the ultimate goal of providing for the "safe use of existing structures in the interest of the social and economic welfare of the community." High levels of housing violations may indicidate a need for rehabilitation or other assistance in an area.
According to the Lexington Code of Ordinances, "Nuisance shall mean any condition or use of premises or of building exteriors which is detrimental to the property of others or which causes or tends to cause substantial diminution in the value of other property in the neighborhood in which such premises are located." Specifically, nuisances include the keeping of trash and debris, tall grass, vegetation in the public right-of-way, exterior storage of inoperable or unlicensed vehicles, and exterior storage of indoor furniture. A high number of nuisance calls may indicate a lack of maintenance in an area or a high number of vacant or abandoned properties.
Building permits are typically the most accurate available indicator of construction in a community. This metric indicates both new construction and investment in existing strucutures. Building permits show areas where communities are growing and changing.
A high number of foreclosures may indicate overall distress in a neighborhood. Foreclosures can create abandoned properties, which are a blight on the community and are correlated with crime.
Average residential property value can be a good indicator of the health of individual properties themselves in a given area. High property values often indicate a high level of maintenance, amenities, and the desirability of an area.
We love feedback! Please send us your thoughts at lexington@codeforamerica.org.