Heat Maps vs. Geographically Based Economic Data

Over the last couple of years, housing search sites have been quickly innovating in an attempt to give users the best search experience possible.  They are finding more ways to seemlessly give housing shoppers the data they need to make more informed decisions.  One of these innovations has been demographic and housing heat maps launhced by Zillow, Trulia, and HotPads.  (the links go to the heat maps or pages explaining the heat maps)  LA Times Article

These heat maps are great for giving housing shoppers relevant information about different areas of the country or different neighborhoods.  However, we found the king daddy heat map with the Geographically based Economic data (G-Econ) project at Yale.  They have created a 3-D Rotating Globe Heat Map of world economic activity.  (That is a lot of bells and whistles.)  Its a very cool tool and worth checking out. 

Maybe, just maybe, it could be used to explain the disparity in how much house $1 million gets you around the world...