A free, nutrition-label-style scorecard for any U.S. home. It rates nine things that shape what a place costs to live in and how well it holds up — disaster risk, energy use, durability, environmental footprint, city-service costs, neighborhood health, the local economy, walkability, and a changing climate.
We estimate these from public data (USACE structure records + Census) and score with them. Anything looks off? Edit it and the label updates. Living area is per unit.
Enter an address to see its live label. Pick a construction type to compare how building choices move the scores — or view the project on GitHub.
A home is one of the biggest purchases people make — yet it's surprisingly hard to judge. Buyers can't easily see how well a home is built, what it will cost to run and maintain, or how exposed it is to disasters. Builders get little credit for doing better, because the market can't tell the difference. And cities struggle to show how much cheaper it is to serve compact neighborhoods than sprawl.
No one has put all of that into a single, open scorecard for every home. That's what this project is building.
A clear, color-coded scorecard for any home — showing how it does on the things that matter to buyers, neighborhoods, and cities. Each of the nine dimensions is scored from 0 to 100 and gets two grades: one comparing the home to the whole country, and one comparing it to nearby homes.
How much damage floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, and fire are likely to cause in a typical year — and how much the home's construction, age, and upgrades (like a reinforced roof) change that. Built on FEMA and USGS hazard data.
How much energy the home is likely to use, and what that costs each month at local utility rates — based on its age, size, construction, and heating and cooling system. Benchmarked to U.S. Department of Energy data.
How much useful life the home's major systems — structure, roof, HVAC, plumbing, wiring, windows — have left, adjusted for its condition. A longevity score, kept separate from disaster risk.
The home's yearly climate impact: the energy it uses (on the local power grid), the carbon built into its materials, and its water use. A higher score means a smaller footprint.
Whether the home covers the cost of the city services it needs — roads, water, sewer, fire, police. Compact housing shares those costs across more homes, so it scores better.
How healthy the surrounding neighborhood is, from local rates of conditions like obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and asthma (CDC data). This describes the area, not the building.
The neighborhood's economic profile — income, poverty, education, and jobs (Census data). Like the health score, this reflects the area, not the building itself.
How easy it is to run daily errands on foot, by transit, or by bike (EPA National Walkability Index — intersection density, transit proximity, and land-use mix).
How the local climate is projected to shift by mid-century — more extreme heat, heavy rain and flooding, and drought (USGS downscaled projections). Shown as a range for lower- vs. higher-emissions futures.
Every dimension produces two grades, because context matters:
Fixed thresholds (A≥80, B≥60, C≥40, D≥20, F<20). Tells you how the home compares to the rest of the country — useful for comparing across cities.
A B C D F
Ranked against nearby homes (A=top 10%, B=next 25%, C=next 30%, D=next 25%, F=bottom 10%). Tells you how the home compares to its neighbors — useful when home-shopping in one area.
A B C D F
You can score any U.S. address across all nine dimensions right now (try the box above). The scores draw on national public datasets — FEMA, USGS, EPA, CDC, the Census Bureau, and the EIA. The project began as a pilot in Shelby County, TN, and a few inputs — the reference set for the local (neighbor-to-neighbor) grades, and some cost baselines — are still being generalized to the whole country; the label flags those where they apply. You can also model construction choices, including multi-unit buildings (duplexes, quadplexes) and 20+ above-code upgrades.
The scoring engine, data pipeline, and address-search service are all open-source under the MIT license.
| Source | Provides | Access |
|---|---|---|
| USACE National Structure Inventory | Building details auto-filled from the address (sqft, stories, foundation, material, year) | Free, public |
| FEMA NFHL | Flood zone designations | Free, no key |
| NOAA Climate Normals | Temperature, degree days, precipitation | Free, no key |
| SPC Historical Tornadoes | Tornado frequency & intensity | Free, no key |
| USGS NSHM | Seismic hazard (PGA values) | Free, no key |
| FEMA National Risk Index | Wildfire expected annual loss (fire peril) | Free, no key |
| DOE/EIA ResStock | Energy use intensity benchmarks | Free, reference data |
| EIA state utility rates | Residential electricity & gas prices by state | Free, reference data |
| EPA eGRID2022 | Grid carbon intensity (environmental footprint) | Free, reference data |
| USGS CMIP6-LOCA2 | Sub-county climate-hazard projections | Free, no key |
| CDC PLACES | Health metrics by census tract | Free, no key |
| Census ACS 5-yr Summary File | Socioeconomic indicators (national reference) | Free, no key (bundled) |
| EPA National Walkability Index | Walkability by census tract | Free, public domain (bundled) |