How can we help?
Search for an answer, browse by topic, or send us feedback. New to LocalAlpha? Start with what the Alpha Score is.
Scores & concepts
What the Alpha Score, Market Phase, and Land Alpha mean and how to read them.
What is the Alpha Score?
The Alpha Score is a composite 0–100 index that measures a real estate market's overall strength. It blends five dimensions — price momentum, inventory health, affordability, economic strength, and rental yield — into one number, so you can compare markets at a glance and surface emerging areas before they become obvious.
Read more →How is the Alpha Score calculated?
The Alpha Score is a weighted average of five dimension scores: Inventory Health (25%), Price Momentum (20%), Affordability (20%), Economic Strength (20%), and Rental Yield (15%). Each dimension is percentile-ranked within its geography level. Missing dimensions default to 50 (neutral), and ZIPs can inherit some dimensions from their parent metro.
Read more →What are the five Alpha Score dimensions?
The five dimensions are Price Momentum (how fast prices are moving), Inventory Health (supply tightness), Affordability (prices versus local incomes), Economic Strength (jobs and wages), and Rental Yield (income potential). Each is scored 0–100, and together they explain why a market earns the overall Alpha Score it does.
Read more →What does the market temperature label mean?
Market temperature translates the Alpha Score into a plain label: Hot Seller's (75+), Seller's (60–74), Balanced (40–59), Buyer's (25–39), and Deep Buyer's (under 25). It is a quick read on who currently has leverage in the market — sellers at the top, buyers at the bottom.
Read more →What do I get beyond the Alpha Score?
Beyond the headline Alpha Score, every market page goes deeper on that one number: a Score Breakdown (what each of the five dimensions contributes), Market Phase (where the market sits in its cycle and where it's heading), momentum over 1, 3, and 12 months, similar markets, and a plain-English Market Brief.
Read more →What is the Land Alpha Score?
The Land Alpha Score is a separate 0–100 index for vacant-land markets, scored per county and acre tier. It blends Market Velocity (30%), Sell-Through (30%), Market Activity (20%), Demand Pressure (10%), and Price Accessibility (10%). Counties with fewer than three active listings in a tier are left unscored to avoid noise.
Read more →
How-to guides
Step-by-step walkthroughs for the map, watchlists, signals, and parcel orders.
How do I use the Explore map?
Open Explore to see an interactive map beside a synced list. Pan and zoom to load markets for the current view; the map auto-switches between metros, counties, and ZIPs as you zoom in. Click a marker or boundary to see its Alpha Score and open the full market page, and use the filter bar to narrow by level, score range, and overlay.
Read more →How do I save a market to my watchlist?
Find a market through search, the Explore map, or a market page, then add it to your watch areas from Settings or the market view. Watched areas appear on your dashboard with their current Alpha Score and recent movement. Your plan sets how many areas you can track at once.
Read more →How do I read a market detail page?
A market page leads with the Alpha Score, temperature, and regime, followed by the Score Breakdown (what each dimension contributes), then Market Phase (where the market is heading). Below that you’ll find the underlying metrics with year-over-year change, a trend chart, active signals, similar markets, and — for metros — the child ZIPs ranked by score.
Read more →How do I order parcel data?
Use the 5-step order wizard at Land → Orders → New. Pick one or more counties, set acreage, value, and cleanup filters, preview the record counts and data quality, confirm pricing, and submit. Your export builds in the background and appears in Order history with a download link when ready.
Read more →How do I interpret market signals?
Signals are automatic alerts when a market crosses a meaningful threshold — for example low inventory, price acceleration or deceleration, an affordability crisis, or a regime change. Each carries a severity (info, warning, or critical). Treat them as prompts to look closer, not as buy or sell instructions on their own.
Read more →
Troubleshooting & data
Why a score is missing, how often data updates, and how to read coverage.
Why is a market’s score missing or showing as neutral?
A score is blank or sits near 50 when there isn’t enough real data for that geography. LocalAlpha deliberately leaves a dimension neutral rather than guessing, and skips scoring entirely where no real metrics exist. Smaller ZIPs and rural counties have thinner coverage, and land tiers with fewer than three active listings are intentionally unscored.
Read more →How often is the data updated?
Scores recompute nightly, but each source refreshes on its own cadence: Redfin market data is weekly, government economic series (BLS, Census, FHFA, QCEW) arrive monthly, quarterly, or annually. The methodology page shows a live freshness table per source, so you can always see how current each input is.
Read more →How long do signals stay active?
Signals are tied to a market’s period of data. A signal reflects the condition detected for the latest period and is superseded when the next period’s data recomputes the market. Regime-change signals mark the moment a market shifted from one temperature band to another, so they mark a transition rather than an ongoing state.
Read more →Why don’t the numbers match what I see on Redfin or elsewhere?
LocalAlpha aggregates whole geographies (a ZIP, county, or metro) for a defined period, while a site like Redfin may show a single listing or a different time window. We also use All Residential property types for scoring and percentile-rank within a level. Small differences usually come from period, geography, or property-type definitions rather than an error.
Read more →How do I report a data error, bug, or question?
Use the Help button on any page, then choose Send feedback — or click a "Report an issue" link near the data in question. Pick a category (bug, data error, methodology question, or general feedback), describe what you saw, and optionally leave your email. Context like the page and market is attached automatically so we can reproduce it.
Read more →
Account & billing
Plans, sign-in, personas, exports, and managing your account.
How do I sign in to LocalAlpha?
You can sign in with Google or with an email magic link from the login page. Enter your email and we send a one-time link that signs you in for 30 days — there is no password to remember. The link expires after 15 minutes, so request a fresh one if it lapses.
Read more →What do the different plans include?
Free access covers core scores and the Explore map with up to three watch markets. Pro unlocks an unlimited watchlist, zip-level drill-down, extended charts, and the deeper read — Market Phase, Score Breakdown, similar markets, and the Market Brief. Land Alpha adds the land tools — Land Alpha scores, Land Pulse, and the land deal-flow CRM. Feature availability is controlled per plan.
Read more →How do I change my investor persona or scoring preferences?
Your persona (such as flipper, buy-and-hold, or land) tunes how markets are presented to you. Change it from Settings, where you can also build custom score formulas that re-weight the five dimensions to match your strategy and preview the resulting market archetype before saving.
Read more →How do I delete my account?
Open Settings → Account and choose Delete account, then confirm by typing your email. Your account is soft-deleted immediately and you are signed out, with a 30-day grace period during which signing back in restores it. After 30 days the data is permanently purged, and a link in the confirmation email lets you erase immediately.
Read more →
Didn’t find your answer? Send us feedback
Report a bug, flag a data or calculation issue, ask about the methodology, or just share a thought. We read every submission.