Data request: dwelling unit location, value, occupancy

October 5, 2023 10:17 AM

I am looking for a data provider from whom I can purchase data about dwelling units (homes). I'm looking for detailed information about single-family and multi-family properties, such as how many units are in a property, if they are vacant or occupied, how much rent is, the assessed value of the land, and how many of the units are subsidized, etc. I've spoken with several data providers and have not been impressed, because their data targets the needs of capitalist investors, not pro-housing researchers.

A few issues I'm facing:

- much of this data is obtained at the very local level - from small-town clerks who didn't enter the data into their forms correct the first time. Garbage in, garbage out.

- rent data is proprietary and expensive to access, because it enables high-value investments. My use case is very different - I don't need to make decisions about where things could go to make money, I just want to know what is already there.

- Data sets often cover markets instead of municipal boundaries. I'm looking for smaller, geo-targeted data sets.

- It's really hard to find data on if DU's are owner occupied, renter occupied, vacant, or vacation/second homes.

Any recommendations would be helpful, especially if you can comment on the pricing model they use! Cheers.

posted by rebent to Grab Bag (6 answers total)

There is a product that was on the strong towns podcast a few months ago, targeted at folks just like you! I don’t have much internet right now, but I recommend scrolling through their archives.
posted by rockindata at 10:41 AM on October 5, 2023

Pretty sure it was regrid!
posted by rockindata at 10:48 AM on October 5, 2023

My impression is that most of the parcel-level data including that available from Regrid is derived from property tax data, which is limited to whatever the taxing authorities collect, and does not typically include occupancy status or rental status. It does include value of land, buildings, acreage, owner names, etc. And yes, its accuracy depends totally on input at the city/town level, because that's who administers property taxation.
posted by beagle at 11:11 AM on October 5, 2023

Virtually all landlords, small and large, will be unwilling to provide data on rents charged, rents paid, and subsidy because it would be considered proprietary business information.

BUT for subsidized housing, a nicely targeted FOI request directed to the HUD regional office or to the local administering agency may reveal much of that information because, with the Federal involvement, it should all be public information.
posted by yclipse at 11:35 AM on October 5, 2023

tax data, which is limited to whatever the taxing authorities collect, and does not typically include occupancy status or rental status.

It would be a lot of work but if you bought separate marketing data you could cross-reference names to find out if the owner is listed as a resident at that address.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 3:25 PM on October 5, 2023

I don’t know enough about this topic to know if Urban Institute has the type of data you’re looking for but they have some great tools and datasets on housing data in the U.S.

https://www.urban.org/tags/housing-finance-glance-monthly-chartbook
posted by forkisbetter at 4:58 PM on October 5, 2023 [1 favorite]