A complete catalog of the label's nine dimensions, every variable you can control, and where each input comes from geographically. For the underlying formulas and sources, see Methodology; to run it yourself, see Setup.
Some inputs are pulled for your exact address; others describe the surrounding census tract or county; a couple use national models; and a few depend only on your house and are identical anywhere. This is the single most common source of confusion, so here it is up front.
| Resolution | What's resolved at this level |
|---|---|
| Address point | Flood zone (FEMA NFHL), tornado frequency (SPC, within 25 mi), seismic PGA (USGS) |
| Census tract | Health (CDC PLACES), Socioeconomic (Census ACS), and Walkability (EPA National Walkability Index) — each scored against the national distribution of US tracts, comparable across locations |
| County | Energy climate zone (IECC) and Infrastructure Burden (cost / property-tax model) |
| County | Environmental grid-carbon factor (kg CO₂e/kWh) — the location's eGRID2022 subregion rate via a bundled county→subregion crosswalk (US-average fallback for unmapped counties) |
| Your house only | Durability, embodied carbon, and the fire peril — driven by construction / year / condition, identical at any location |
The composite is the mean of whichever dimensions could be scored (location dimensions are omitted, not zeroed, when their data/keys are unavailable). National grades use absolute thresholds: A ≥ 80, B ≥ 60, C ≥ 40, D ≥ 20, F < 20.
| Dimension | Measures | Data source | Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disaster Resilience | Expected annual loss from flood, tornado, earthquake & fire | FEMA NFHL, SPC, USGS, NFPA base rate | point + config |
| Energy Efficiency | Modeled energy use intensity vs. a climate-zone benchmark | IECC climate zone + construction model | county + config |
| Durability | Building longevity from materials, build quality & condition | Construction model | config |
| Environmental Footprint | Embodied + operational carbon over the building's life | Material carbon + eGRID2022 subregion grid factor | county + config |
| Infrastructure Burden | Fiscal cost-to-serve vs. the revenue the parcel generates | Census of Governments spending + ACS tax model (per county) | county |
| Health Impact | Neighborhood health outcomes (national percentile) | CDC PLACES | tract |
| Socioeconomic | Neighborhood socioeconomic index (national percentile) | Census ACS | tract |
| Walkability | How walkable the location is | EPA National Walkability Index | tract |
| Climate Projections | Projected extreme heat, heavy precip/flood & drought (RCP4.5–8.5, mid-century) | NOAA/DOI CMRA (LOCA/NCA4) | county |
The structural system. It drives Disaster Resilience (separate factors per peril) and the build-quality grade used by Durability & Environmental. Lower peril factors = less expected loss = better; higher build grade = better. ICF/SIP also get extra envelope credit in the Energy model beyond what the wall code below implies.
| Type | Wind / seismic | Flood | Fire | Build grade | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wood frame | 1.20 | 1.20 | 1.10 | 38 | Light wood frame — the baseline; most vulnerable to wind/seismic |
| Vinyl-sided frame | 1.15 | 1.15 | 1.10 | 35 | Wood frame with vinyl siding: slight wind benefit, slightly lower build grade |
| Brick veneer / frame | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 42 | Brick veneer over a wood frame — composite baseline |
| Brick (solid masonry) | 0.95 | 0.95 | 0.85 | 48 | Solid brick; better lateral resistance & less combustible |
| Concrete block (CMU) | 0.90 | 0.90 | 0.80 | 46 | Reinforced masonry; strong lateral resistance |
| Stone | 0.85 | 0.85 | 0.80 | 52 | Solid masonry; best of the traditional types |
| ICF (insulated concrete form) | 0.25 | 0.45 | 0.70 | 50 | Monolithic concrete shell; huge wind/seismic & fire benefit (finishes still flood-vulnerable) |
| SIP (structural insulated panel) | 0.35 | 0.35 | 1.05 | 45 | Engineered wood composite; excellent racking resistance, frame-like fire behavior |
Upkeep/deterioration. Multiplies expected loss for every disaster peril (so it now affects the score at any age — there is no upper cap) and feeds the Durability model.
| Condition | Loss multiplier |
|---|---|
| Unsound | 1.5× (worst) |
| Poor | 1.3× |
| Fair | 1.1× |
| Average | 1.0× (baseline) |
| Good | 0.9× |
| Excellent | 0.8× (best) |
Affects the flood peril only (below-grade space is what floods).
| Foundation | Flood multiplier |
|---|---|
| Slab | 0.7× (at/above grade; least flood loss) |
| Crawl space | 1.0× (baseline) |
| Partial basement | 1.2× |
| Full basement | 1.4× (most flood loss) |
Year built drives two separate vulnerability multipliers — one for the building code era (wind/seismic) and one for the electrical/wiring era (fire). Both compound with condition; lower is better.
| Era | Code factor (wind/seismic) |
|---|---|
| Before 1940 | 1.6× (balloon framing, no engineered connections) |
| 1940–1969 | 1.3× |
| 1970–1989 | 1.1× |
| 1990–2002 | 1.0× |
| 2003 or later | 0.85× (post-IBC) |
| Wiring era | Fire factor |
|---|---|
| Before 1950 | 1.5× (knob-and-tube era) |
| 1950–1974 | 1.2× (aluminum branch wiring era) |
| 1975–2001 | 1.0× |
| 2002 or later | 0.85× (NEC 2002+ AFCI requirements) |
| Field | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Flood zone | FEMA zone (X minimal, X500 moderate, AE high). Auto-derived from the resolved location (address or lat/lon) via FEMA NFHL if not set. | auto (FEMA NFHL) |
| Value | Market value; scales the dollar-denominated expected loss (not the 0–100 scores, which are rates). | $160,000 |
| Units | Dwelling units; the parcel is framed per-unit for the construction dimensions. | 1 |
| Square footage | Living area of a single dwelling unit (per unit, not the whole building — it is not divided by the unit count); feeds the energy & environmental per-area models. | 2,000 |
| Lot acres | Parcel size; feeds the infrastructure cost-to-serve model. | 0.25 |
Above-code features that reduce a specific peril's expected loss. Each is a multiplier — lower = bigger reduction — applied on top of the construction/condition adjustment. FORTIFIED tiers are composite and supersede the individual wind features; the three elevation tiers are mutually exclusive.
| Upgrade | Factor |
|---|---|
| Solar panels | 0.97 |
| Backup generator / battery | 0.95 |
| Passive-house certification | 0.92 |
| Fire sprinklers | 0.92 here, and 0.40 on fire |
| Upgrade | Factor |
|---|---|
| Tornado safe room (FEMA P-361) | 0.85 |
| Hurricane straps (continuous load path) | 0.70 |
| Hip roof | 0.55 |
| Impact-rated garage door | 0.75 |
| Sealed roof deck | 0.80 |
| Standing-seam metal roof | 0.75 |
| Reinforced gable ends | 0.80 |
| Ring-shank nails | 0.88 |
| 16″ OC trusses | 0.92 |
| Tier | Factor |
|---|---|
| FORTIFIED Roof | 0.35 |
| FORTIFIED Silver | 0.25 |
| FORTIFIED Gold | 0.20 |
| Upgrade | Factor |
|---|---|
| Seismic retrofit / base isolation | 0.75 |
| Cripple-wall bracing | 0.45 |
| Seismic hold-downs | 0.85 |
| Automatic gas shut-off valve | 0.90 |
| Upgrade | Factor |
|---|---|
| Elevated +1 ft above BFE | 0.15 |
| Elevated +2 ft | 0.08 |
| Elevated +3 ft | 0.04 |
| Engineered flood vents | 0.85 |
| Backflow-prevention valve | 0.90 |
| Smart leak detection | 0.95 |
| Upgrade | Factor |
|---|---|
| Fire sprinklers | 0.40 on the fire peril (~60% loss reduction) |
Starting configurations. Any field you set in Construction details (or via CLI/API) overrides the preset.
| Preset | Profile |
|---|---|
| baseline | 2000 wood frame, slab, average, zone X, $160k |
| premium | 2026 solid brick, excellent, zone X, $450k |
| icf-passive | 2026 ICF passive house, excellent, full resilience package (solar, generator, safe room, wind upgrades, +1ft) |
| fortified-gold | 2026 frame, FORTIFIED Gold + metal roof + sealed deck, $350k |
| worst-case | 1945 wood frame, full basement, poor, zone AE, $80k |
| duplex | 2026 brick, 2 units @ 1,200 sqft |
| quadplex | 2026 brick, 4 units @ 900 sqft |
| icf-quadplex | 2026 ICF, 4 units @ 1,000 sqft, resilience package |
Every variable above is settable three ways: the Examples search form, the housing-simulate CLI, and the /label HTTP API (see Setup).
housing-simulate --address "123 Main St, Columbus, OH" \
--construction icf --year-built 2026 --condition excellent \
--foundation slab --sqft 1800 --value 350000 \
--solar --hurricane-straps --fire-sprinklers --jsonCore flags: --preset, --address (or --lat/--lon), --construction, --year-built, --foundation, --condition, --flood-zone, --value, --units, --sqft, --lot-acres. Each resilience upgrade is a flag (e.g. --solar, --fortified-gold, --elevation-1ft). --json emits the full payload; --no-fetch runs offline.
Density comparison: add --density to compare the same parcel at 1–4 dwelling units (fixed lot, constant per-unit value) — the density dividend. Set the counts with --density-units 1,2,4; combine with --json for machine-readable output.
GET /label?address=<addr>&preset=baseline&construction=icf&year_built=2026
&condition=excellent&sqft=1800&value=350000
&upgrades=solar,hurricane_straps,fire_sprinklersSame parameters as the CLI; resilience upgrades are a single comma-separated upgrades= list. GET /suggest?q= powers the address autocomplete.
GET /density?address=<addr>&units=1,2,4&per_unit_value=250000Compares the parcel across densities (fixed lot, vary units). Accepts every /label house parameter plus units= (comma-separated counts, default 1,2,3,4) and per_unit_value= (held constant; otherwise an explicit value= is the per-unit value, else the county median is auto-filled). Each scenario returns its scores plus fiscal productivity per acre (revenue_per_acre, cost_per_acre, net_fiscal_per_acre), and the response includes the headline density dividend (fiscal ratio, Infrastructure grade, and property-tax-revenue-per-acre multiplier from fewest to most units).