I thought it would be interesting to map home sale data in Riverdale Park, University Park and East Riverdale, after being inspired by the Home Sales in Hyattsville map created by my colleague Mike Theis a few weeks ago.

Using 2012 home sale data from the Maryland State Department of Taxation (zero dollar property transfers omitted), I plotted the location of home sales on the map above to see where the hot and cool spots of the area’s residential real estate market were focused.

By hovering your mouse over the colored areas of the map, you can see the closing sale prices of nearby homes.

The data was not too surprising. The “hottest” areas, where you see the red blobs, is University Park, where the home sale prices are the highest. The "coolest" areas, where you see the blue, are over in East Riverdale, where homes sale prices are the lowest. Right in between the two, where you see lots of yellow blobs, is Riverdale Park, where home sale prices are average.

The most expensive home sold in the area last year was 4013 Van Buren St. in University Park. The 2,611 square foot home closed with a sale price of $532,000 in October 2012. The area’s least expensive home was 5734 Eastpine Dr., located in East Riverdale. The 1,208 square foot home was sold as a short sale for $41,000.

Pooling the home sale prices together, shows homes in Riverdale Park, University Park and East Riverdale selling for an average of $174,808.02. The standard deviation is pretty high, at around $90K. A high standard deviation means that the data points, in this case sales prices, are very spread out. This means that those selling at a significantly different price than the average selling price are more than a few scattered exceptions.

Given that high standard deviation, a better way of examining what a house generally costs in this area can be found by calculating the mode value, or, the price most often paid for a home. The mode closing price for Riverdale Park, University Park and East Riverdale for 2012 was $225,000.

Mike Theis contributed to this story.