Grass is Greener When You’re Growing Fast

We’re super excited about 2012 and to help ring in the New Year, the Trulia Insights team decided to get a little fancy and do a proper send off to 2011 by looking back at how much we’ve grown (literally) with another awesome infographic.

All in all, more than 27 million online house hunters each month use Trulia in their search for a new home – which is nuts ‘cause that doesn’t even count the 6+ million mobile house hunters who make up about 27% of our weekend traffic.

So Hit The Lights, Uh, Oh, Oh!

Since we opened Trulia’s doors to house hunters 6+ years ago, we’ve had a TON of visitors (which is awesome), but what’s even more tru-li-a-mazing  is that you all keep coming back (we love you too!).

Just look at how you all have lit up our world over the years!

When we kicked off this little New Year’s project, we started by mapping out where house hunters did the most of their window shopping over the years. Each light (er…white dot) represents a zip code where a house for sale was looked at by a prospective buyer. To call out the obvious, big cities shined the brightest which means they got the popular vote. This makes sense since there are a lot more homes to buy in bigger metro areas and most people aren’t really looking to live the simple life in the middle of nowhere.

Where the Green Grass Grows Tallest

Now for all you design/data geeks out there, you’re probably thinking to yourself – “oh how original, a city lights map,” while rolling your eyes. Well, to all you naysayers, please. We’re not too keen on being copycats.

Rather than just illustrating each property view as a single dot that gets lit up when a home gets checked out in a zip code, we’re adding another layer of detail – popularity.

So here’s what we’re looking at (and no, it’s not America as a poorly kept lawn). Each blade of grass…er…spike…represents a zip code where a house for sale was looked at. The taller the blade, the higher that area ranks on the popularity scale.

Call us crazy, but today’s house hunters must really be influenced by the glamorous lives of the rich and famous. The places that got the most eye balls looking for homes in 2011 were LA LA Land (Los Angeles), the beaches of Florida and the pricey parts of New Jersey.

Most Popular Zip Codes of 2011

Looking at this list, here are a few interesting things to point out:

— 90210 – probably the most famous zip code in the world thanks to Aaron Spelling’s popular 90s teen drama – was at the top of the list. Must mean that there are a lot of fans looking at LA for their next move who couldn’t resist checking out what Beverly Hills has to offer.

— As far as Florida is concerned, the central east and west coast are more popular than the north (sorry, Jacksonville), the south (tough love, Miami) and the  state center (seriously, no one wants to live in Disneyworld…err, Orlando?).

— The windy city of Chicago was the only Mid-West city to make our top 20 list. Must have something to do with the snow and slow migration of Chicagoans to the Sunbelt States of Arizona and Florida.

— Several Jersey cities made it on our list – and looking at where these cities are located, I’d say house hunters are trying to be part of the Real Housewives of New Jersey community (hello, Hoboken) or trying to hang with the cast of the Jersey Shore (hey there, Ocean City – holla!).

So that just about sums up Trulia circa 2006 through 2011 – only time will tell what 2012 has in store for us.