Methodology

What kinds of pages there are

The site has place pages (states, counties and cities), data pages (one per measure), calculators, guides, a glossary and a directory of assistance programs. Each kind is made a different way, but all follow the same rule: we never type a number by hand. Every number comes from an official source or from a calculation we explain here.

The page for each place

A county or city page is built from that place’s official data. We use the same sources for every place, so you can compare them. Beside each number you see who publishes it and what period it covers.

• “Typical” is the median. Half of the homes are worth more and half are worth less. The same goes for rent and income.
• Small places have a larger margin of error. Census surveys ask a share of households. When the margin is large, we mark the number as approximate or don’t show it.
• If a number is missing, we say so. You see “data not available”. We never fill it with a made-up number or with another place’s.

At the end of this page you see each measure with its source.

The numbers we calculate

Some numbers nobody publishes: we calculate them from official data. Always with the same formula, and always saying it is our calculation.

• Can a typical household afford it? We take the place’s typical home and calculate its monthly payment with an FHA loan: the minimum down payment of 3.5%, a 30-year term, Freddie Mac’s latest average rate, the place’s property tax, an example home insurance of 0.5% of the price per year, and FHA mortgage insurance. Then we compare that payment with the place’s typical income. If the payment is up to 28% of income, we say it is within reach; up to 36%, tight; more, demanding.
• Rent burden. The share of renting households that pay 30% or more of their income in rent. The Census Bureau publishes that number; we don’t calculate it.
• How much rent you can afford. The calculator uses HUD’s benchmark: rent of no more than 30% of your income. Up to that, we say it fits; up to 50%, a stretch; more, a severe burden.
• How much home you can afford. The calculator finds the highest price that meets three tests: the home payment is no more than 28% of your income, the home payment plus your other debts is no more than 36%, and your savings cover the down payment and closing. Those are the values it starts with; you can change them.
• Property tax. The typical tax owners pay per year divided by the typical home value. It is an approximate rate, not the rate on your home.

The rules of each loan (the minimum down payment, FHA mortgage insurance, the VA funding fee) are kept in one place, each with its official page and the date we check it again.

What only each place has

Each county and city page says what sets that place apart. We compare its numbers with the rest of the state and with its neighbors, and we show only what truly stands out:

• The county is in the top or bottom 10% of its state for price, rent, income or another measure.
• A neighboring county is 15% or more cheaper.
• The people who live there differ from the rest of the state by 5 points or more: for example, how many households own their home or how many have no internet at home.
• How home prices changed in recent years, compared with the state.
• 5% or more of the homes are in a high-risk flood zone, and how many of them are insured.

We show up to 6 of these facts, the most unusual first. So two places almost never say the same thing.

These facts describe the place. We never say a place is better or worse for a group of people, and we never rank places by the origin or language of the people who live there.

Programs, state rules and tenant rights

Homebuyer assistance programs, each state’s tax and insurance rules and tenant rights don’t come from a dataset. We read them one by one on the official page that publishes them: the state housing agency, the law, the court or the attorney general.

• We copy the source’s words. We keep the exact sentence from the official page and, beside it, explain it in plain language. The explanation never says more than the source.
• We keep the date. Each record says when we checked the page. We check it again at least every 180 days. If more time passes, the page tells you.
• If the source doesn’t say it, we don’t say it. When a program doesn’t say whether it accepts an ITIN, for example, we say it doesn’t say. We don’t guess.

The guides

Each guide has a list of its sources. Every rule, number or deadline it mentions is tied to an official source: the law, the agency’s rule or the program’s document. A news story or a blog never serves as the source of a rule.

The numbers in the guides aren’t typed by hand either: they come from the same data and rules as the rest of the site, and they update on their own. Guides about rules that change fast, such as immigration rules, are checked again at least every 90 days and say whether each rule is in effect, proposed or blocked by a court.

When a page doesn’t show up in search engines

Some places have little data of their own: a very small county, a small town. Its page stays on the site for anyone who looks for it here. But we don’t ask Google or other search engines to show it.

We do it for you. If you arrive from a search engine, we want you to land on a page that tells you something new about that place, not a copy of the next county’s page with other numbers.