Some offers on this site come from partners who pay a referral fee when you open an account, request a rate, or get matched with an agent through their links. That fee never changes your price, and it never changes the math: budgets, verdicts, market data, and city rankings are computed from public data before any offer is chosen, and no partner can pay to alter them. Agents shown as "featured local agent" pay a flat monthly advertising fee for that placement — exclusive per city, and it never changes the market data or verdicts on the page.
Home values and rents: data provided by Zillow Group (ZHVI and ZORI research series — free public data, used with attribution). Income and population: US Census Bureau ACS 5-year estimates via Census Reporter. Coordinates: US Census Gazetteer files. Mortgage rate: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey via FRED. Night imagery: NASA Black Marble. City photos: Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons, credited and linked on each page.
We apply the 28/36 rule lenders commonly use: monthly housing costs capped at 28% of gross income, total debt payments at 36%. On top of principal and interest we estimate property tax (your state's average effective rate, from Census/Tax Foundation figures), homeowners insurance (your state's average effective rate, derived from NAIC/industry premium surveys), and PMI (0.6%/yr of the loan while the down payment is under 20%). State averages hide real local variation, and lenders differ.
We use Google Analytics 4 to count visits and understand which pages are useful — pages viewed, and clicks on partner links. It sets cookies in your browser. It never sees the financial numbers you enter; those stay in your browser's local storage.
If you sign up to watch a market, your email address (and the market you chose) goes to Zoho Campaigns, the service that stores our list and sends the emails. Every email has a one-click unsubscribe link. We never sell or share the list, and it's entirely separate from the financial numbers you type into the site, which stay in your browser.
Everything here is an estimate for orientation, not a recommendation to buy, borrow, or invest. We are not a lender, broker, or licensed financial advisor. Your inputs stay in your browser — no accounts, no server that could store them.