Today, HousingForward Virginia announces a new online data resource to help Virginians understand housing needs in their communities.
What is Sourcebook?
Sourcebook is HousingForward’s free online resource for data on housing, demographic, and socioeconomic trends across the Commonwealth. We first created Sourcebook over a decade ago to put Virginia’s most key affordable housing metrics all in one place.
We knew that the important data points you need to do your work can be difficult to find—and even harder to analyze. Data sources were, and still are, spread out across different websites and the information you need can be buried in a spreadsheet or some file format you’re not even familiar with.
Sourcebook helped by collecting, summarizing, and presenting different data points to give users a better understanding of housing trends in their communities, which allows them to advocate for and implement better housing solutions.
Why a new Sourcebook?
Many years have passed since Sourcebook was originally launched. Data sources, web design, and our users’ needs have all changed. So we felt that it was time to make some upgrades.
We have completely rebuilt Sourcebook from the ground up. We’re thankful for our sponsors who helped make this happen: Atlantic Union Bank, Virginia REALTORS, Wells Fargo, and Virginia Housing.
Highlights include:
- A completely new, user-friendly main landing page
- Logical and clearly organized data topic categories
- Over 40 new Tableau data dashboards that allow for interactive filtering, custom views, and simple data or image export
- Explanations of (and direct links to) all data sources
- All methodology and data available in a public, open-source GitHub repository
The redesign also has new data points that did not previously exist in the old Sourcebook. This includes key metrics like: Total Population; Household Size; Assisted Rentals; and Employment.
More to come!
As you’ll see at the bottom of the new landing page, we have new dashboards and other updates planned for later this year. Our work is not done yet, and we look forward to releasing additional resources to help our partners across the Commonwealth with their data needs.
We encourage you to explore Sourcebook and let us know what you think about it. Tell us how we can make Sourcebook even better for you. What other data points are you looking for? What additional features would you like to see? We want Sourcebook to continue to be your go-to resource for data that helps inform your work in housing.