IRS Internal Migration Data and Housing Bubble

Earlier this week, I suggested a potential business application of IRS’s internal migration data for a moving and relocation company.

Folks at Neilsen Claritas just found a far more interesting correlation which should have driven a lot of business decisions.  They note:

Today’s presence of underwater mortgages, or homes with negative equity, seem to be correlated to two common regional U.S. population trends: 1) domestic immigration from the Northeastern region to the South and Southwestern regions of the U.S., and 2) migration from coastal California inland

While such retrospective analysis is interesting for reports and blogs, it is not particularly useful for businesses. Maybe as means to generate  interesting hypothesis for future. It would have been useful had the chart been available to the strategic planning or risk group of businesses signing up people…

Earlier this week, I suggested a potential business application of IRS’s internal migration data for a moving and relocation company.

Folks at Neilsen Claritas just found a far more interesting correlation which should have driven a lot of business decisions.  They note:

Today’s presence of underwater mortgages, or homes with negative equity, seem to be correlated to two common regional U.S. population trends: 1) domestic immigration from the Northeastern region to the South and Southwestern regions of the U.S., and 2) migration from coastal California inland

While such retrospective analysis is interesting for reports and blogs, it is not particularly useful for businesses. Maybe as means to generate  interesting hypothesis for future. It would have been useful had the chart been available to the strategic planning or risk group of businesses signing up people for these housing loans in 2006 and 2007.

Data is valuable only when it is used to drive decisions. Most companies have a huge opportunity to do a better job in bringing together data, analytics and visualization and delivering them to the points of decision.

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