Harvard CS171 Final Project

There's No Place Like Home

Exploring the Housing Landscape through Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Background: Throughout history, home has played an important role as a physical, emotional, social, and psychological binding agent in our lives. Housing touches every level of humankind’s fundamental needs. Our visualizations in this project are exploratory in nature and allow homebuyers to identify insights like the popularity of housing TV shows, perceptions towards the American dream, and geographic housing trends.

Introduction to Maslow's Hierarchy

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a psychological model proposed by Abraham Maslow that helps map out human needs among a series of distinct tiers. In order to better gauge the extent to which housing overlaps with all major human needs, we are categorizing our visualizations by tiers in the pyramid. Click a level to navigate to that section of the website...

Maslow's First Tier: Physiological Needs

At its core: home provides shelter from the elements. Let’s take a look at US homes’ physical characteristics over time...

American home anatomy

The US Census Bureau's Survey of Construction (Soc) provides a glimpse into the physiological trends of new Single Family (SF) units sold within the US economy.

Notably, home sizes have increased a staggering 67% from the 1980s. However, while Americans are demanding more space, it's unclear whether this has actually led to increased homeowner satisfaction. New research published by the Atlantic suggests that (perhaps unsurprisingly) homeowners regularly compare their homes to those of their neighbors. While the physiological aspects of a home are certainly foundational, it's clear that housing is far more than just shelter.

Title: Physical Characteristics of Single Family Homes Sold

Source: Survey of Construction, US Census Bureau

Title: Property Size by State

Source: Home Advisor

Property size comparison

The following spatial interpolation map plots measures of property size (whether in the form of home, lot, or yard square footage) as a function of geographic location. Each dot represents a US state, and by hovering over a point, a tooltip will reveal information about these three characteristics.

The top states on all three axes appear to be clustered along the Northeast (New Hampshire/Vermont for lot and yard size, along with Connecticut/Massachusetts for home size). The Eastern portion of the country as a whole tends to rank higher on these dimensions than its Western counterpart, with the exception of certain states like Montana.

Maslow's Second Tier: Safety and Security Needs

Owning a home is a core reflection of financial security, with fluctuations in home price over time affecting peoples' perception of wealth. Poorly constructed or maintained homes can also affect personal health and safety. Let's examine both of these research topics through the lens of interactive choropleths...

Financial security

This choropleth map plots fluctuations in home price across different US states. To forecast the general movement in valuations, the FHFA's Home Price Index (HPI) and annual change in HPI (as a percent) are used. The index is calculated as a measure of home sales in a given tract level and is based on a complex formula expounded upon here.

The greatest variability in home prices appears to be clustered along the Pacific Coast, with pockets of HPI also appearing in select states in New England and the Mountain West. Measures of percent change are highest in Idaho and Arizona.

Title: Home Price Index (HPI) and Percent Change vs. State

Source: Federal Housing Finance Agency

Title: Reported Mold Outbreaks in New York City Households

Source: New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)

Household health risks

Across New York City, recurrent mold outbreaks are an issue many residents of public housing have little control over. Caused by leaks or high humidity, mold can pose a wide array of health side effects, such as lung irritation, sore throats, and coughing. In the case of asthmatic tenants, the consequences of lingering mold can be even more severe than this too.

The following choropleth map examines mold reports filed to NYCHA. This data is public in accordance with the Housing Maintenance Code. An analysis of the map reveals a particularly dense cluster of complaints in the Bronx and Brooklyn.

Maslow's Third Tier: Love/Belonging Needs

Our house doesn’t just provide us with a place to live, it also fosters a sense of belonging. To examine the theme of belonging more closely, we will look at what states people are moving into and at what volumes...

Direction of moves

This pair of bar graphs uses data from the moving company, United Van Lines, and its annual report. UVL tracks the relocation tendencies of its customers, including what percentage of shipments are inbound (entering the state) or outbound (leaving it). A full breakdown of the data collection process can be found here.

The general direction of movement appears to trend towards the South and West, with Idaho and South Carolina being among the states with the highest inbound percentage. Conversely, many states with the greatest amount of outbound flow are clustered in the North East.

Title: Top 10 States by Volume of Inbound and Outbound Moving Shipments

Source: Annual 2020 United Van Lines National Movers Study

Title: Demographic comparison of renters and buyers in Denmark

Source: Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn, Germany (link)

Social demographics

This visualization draws from a study of Danish demographic metrics of 1% of the population from 1993 to 2001. As a means of understanding how home owners and buyers differ demographically, the following grouped bar chart categorizes data from the study into three subsets: age, family, and work.

An analysis of the data reveals significantly more work tenure and experience on the part of owners. It also suggests that owners are more likely to have two adults in a household and children living with them. As it relates to age, owners tend to be older than renters.

Maslow's Fourth Tier: Esteem

Homes have always served as status symbols in society. Whether taking the form of monuments to achievement, personal wealth displays, or tokens of affections, homes are part and parcel with how humans seek or bestow esteem...

Status and entertainment

This bubble graph shows the popularity of housing TV shows (represented by circles) as time progresses (plotted on the x-axis), with the size of a given bubble corresponding to the amount of episodes produced. By clicking down on a circle, the thumbnail of the show appears. The timeline can also be scrubbed to restrict the viewing window to a specified time period.

An analysis of the visualization reveals a precipitous increase in the amount of housing TV shows over time, and a corresponding increase in viewer interest in this genre.

Title: Housing TV Show Popularity vs. Time

Source: IMDb

Title: Largest Homes by Square Footage vs. Time

Source: Wikipedia's Largest US Houses List (link)

Extravagant homes

Another way people go about showing off their homes is by building really large ones. This timeline shows the largest homes built throughout the United States in the last few hundred years. Hover on one of the larger ones to learn more...

The construction of most extravagant homes appears to be concentrated during the Gilded Age and first few decades of the 20th century, with the Biltmore Estate bringing home the largest square footage.

Maslow's Fifth Tier: Self-Actualization

At the pinnacle of the pyramid is self-actualization, which refers to someone's ability to meet his or her full potential and pursue higher motivations such as faith, art, music, traveling, or more. Let's explore how housing is related to these concepts...

Attitudes towards the American Dream

This bar graph shows the percentage of US Citizens that associate home ownership with their perception of The American Dream from 2010-2018. It's no secret that owning a house can make one feel like they've "made it" in life and in the USA, and the data bear that out.

Title: Association of Home Ownership with the American Dream

Source: Statistica

Authors

James Parker

Harvard Business School
Class of 2021

David Hacker

Harvard College
Class of 2023

Ethan McFarlin

Harvard College
Class of 2024