Why is a market’s score missing or showing as neutral?

Coverage varies by data source and geography level. Economic data is strongest at the county level, so ZIPs borrow Economic Strength from their parent county (or their metro when the county has none), and Rental Yield only when they have none of their own; cities borrow both.

A dimension can also be withheld: the data exists, but it is too thin, or it comes from an older Census release than the rest of its level. We name it as withheld rather than mixing two different years into one score.

On the map, a geography we cannot score is drawn as a diagonal hatch rather than given a colour from the scale. That is deliberate: a withheld score is not a low score, and colouring it would tell you something we do not know. The legend shows the same hatch so you can match what you are seeing.

Cities are the clearest example. The public sources the score uses publish house prices, home values and incomes for metros, counties and ZIPs, and building permits for metros and counties, but none of these for cities. A city can only borrow Economic Strength and Rental Yield, from its county or, when it has none, its metro, and two of five is not enough to stand behind a number, so city pages show their market data without a score.

A blank score is not a low score, and it is not a bug. It means we could not measure enough of the market to stand behind a number — most often because the federal sources that supply affordability, economic strength and rental yield publish nothing for that geography. Some markets that previously showed a score now show none, because those scores were mostly filler and should not have been published.

If a market you expected is missing, it usually means the upstream source has not published recent data for it yet.