Like most writers, I love getting feedback from my readers. Last week I received an email that asked about Louisville real estate stats by ZIP code rather than simply MLS areas. ZIPs are smaller areas and better understood by the people who live there.

After thinking about it, I believe my reader makes a very strong point. Sure, it’s mountains of additional number crunching for me, but I want to give the people what they want.

Plus, it’s hyper-local. And didn’t I just make that point on my own site last month? Well yes, I sure did.

So after a great deal of processing, here’s our first-ever Louisville home sales by ZIP code map.

Zoom in to see how home sales fared over the past year in your ZIP code. (Click to enlarge.)

A little explanation: The dollar amount is the average year-to-date sales price for that ZIP through March 2015. The number beneath is how that value changed in one year.

It’s always important to remember that sample size greatly influences the volatility of these numbers. I feel much more confident in the 2 percent gain for 40299 because of its sheer size of properties that exchanged hands.

Then there’s 40209, which is almost all commercial/industrial. I’m not sure there’s a single residential property in that whole ZIP. So, we shouldn’t put any weight to that gargantuan 171 percent gain.

Similarly, only 14 homes have sold in all of 40056 in the past year, so it doesn’t take much to inflate this yearly change. It could just as easily have gone the other way.

But it would be strange to not complete the entire map, thus the anomalies.

Here’s the full list of ZIP codes/average home prices ranked from biggest gains to largest losses.

40209 $32,000 +171%40056 $277,000 +121%40203 $117,000 +79%40223 $280,000 +48%40014 $279,000 +23%40207 $318,000 +22%40215 $45,000 +20%40210 $23,000 +18%40218 $103,000 +17%40214 $109,000 +12%40219 $105,000 +10%40242 $181,000 +10%40258 $108,000 +10%40213 $116,000 +9%40205 $281,000 +7%40216 $82,000 +7%40204 $213,000 +6%40272 $101,000 +5%40291 $169,000 +5%40299 $192,000 +2%40241 $251,000 +1%40220 $144,000 -40228 $141,000 -1%40243 $189,000 -2%40217 $113,000 -5%40245 $296,000 -5%40059 $406,000 -6%40211 $26,000 -8%40212 $25,000 -8%40229 $121,000 -8%40023 $319,000 -10%40206 $182,000 -15%40208 $83,000 -16%40222 $201,000 -19%40118 $92,000 -28%40202 $277,000 -32%

TAKEAWAYS

Jefferson County as a whole returned an average year-to-date home sales price of $174,222. This was up 5.2 percent over the same point last year. Using that baseline, we can see how certain parts of Louisville are certainly doing better than others.

Keep in mind, much like the stock market, taking a slice-of-time view shows a limited picture. For example, 40222 saw a troubling -19 percent drop while being surrounded with ZIP codes that all saw positive returns. One possible explanation is that there was a run-up prior to the starting point of this sampling.

The longer the time frame, the more reliable the results. But we live in a data-rich world today. We want to see what’s happening … right now.

I’ll continue to process data on ZIP codes to gain greater understanding of current trends in Louisville real estate.

At the end of the day, the greatest factor in whether or not your home is a good or bad investment is the price you pay for a specific property. In today’s market, buying a home that needs work and purchasing at a discount is the best way to build greater-than-average equity in your investment.