Data sources & transparency
Every number on CMAScope traces to a named public source. No scraping, no listing-level MLS data, no black boxes.
Realtor.com® Economic Research ↗
Listing inventory: median/average listing prices, active & new listings, days on market, price cuts, pending ratio, market hotness. National, state, metro, county and ZIP.
Updates: Monthly (first week), history to July 2016. Weekly national pulse updated weekly.
License: Free with attribution; commercial resale requires confirmation with Realtor.com.
Zillow Research (ZHVI / ZORI) ↗
Typical home values by bedroom count and home type; typical asking rents. National, state, county and ZIP.
Updates: Monthly (mid-month), values to 2000, rents to 2015.
License: Free and open with attribution to Zillow Research.
U.S. Census Bureau — American Community Survey ↗
Neighborhood context: population, income, age, education, employment, poverty, housing stock, tenure, vacancy — with growth vs the prior survey.
Updates: Annual (5-year estimates, released each December).
License: Public domain, attribution appreciated.
FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer ↗
Flood-zone map overlay (via HUD's public mirror).
Updates: Continuously maintained by FEMA.
License: Public domain.
What we compute ourselves
Year-over-year and month-over-month changes are recomputed from source history and reconciled against published figures. Derived signals — price-cut share, momentum z-scores, price percentiles, gross rent yield ($/yr rent ÷ home value) — are documented on the methodology page. AI-written summaries only narrate metrics computed here; they never invent numbers.
AI on this site
CMAScope is built and operated with heavy use of AI, and some content on the site (market summaries, report write-ups and forecast projections) is generated automatically. AI output can contain mistakes. Every chart names its underlying source, so verify important figures against those sources before relying on them.
Fair Housing commitment
Demographic data appears strictly as market context, deliberately excludes racial and ethnic composition, and always carries a reminder that the Fair Housing Act prohibits using demographic characteristics to steer clients toward or away from any neighborhood.
Known limitations
Listing prices are asking prices, not closed sales. ZIP-level figures carry wider error bands than county or metro figures. Hotness covers roughly the 300 largest metros. Estimates from the value estimator are segment statistics, not appraisals.