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Jens von Bergmann is passionate about crunching numbers and analyzing data to see what it reveals about the world around us.

With a PhD in math and undergrad degrees in physics and computer science, von Bergmann taught at the University of Calgary, the University of Notre Dame and Michigan State University before moving to Vancouver a few years ago.

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He runs a small firm called MountainMath Software, which pores over everything from local census data, mass transit and cycling info, and commercial and residential real estate stats to create interactive maps that illustrate his findings.

Like most Vancouverites, von Bergmann has watched the city’s soaring house prices with a mixture of fascination and concern. At an average of more than $1.5 million apiece, single-detached homes in Vancouver are up 37 per cent the past year alone.

Now the city’s suburbs are also seeing prices spike, putting the traditional single-family home out of reach for many local middle-income earners.

Although von Bergmann has seen hot real estate markets before — during the oil price boom in Calgary, where he lived for seven years — that was fundamentally different, he says. Prices rose, and subsequently fell, in tandem with the underlying economy.