We never invent anything. Not a number, a quotation, a source, a date, a title, a law, or a link. If a fact cannot be verified, we say so or we leave it out. "Likely," "typically" and "appears" do not make an unsupported claim acceptable, and we do not use them that way.
We follow the four principles of the Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics: seek truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently, and be accountable. We publish against the Trust Project's eight Trust Indicators.
In order of preference: laws and official records; government data; court filings and public documents; company filings; licensed MLS data we are authorized to publish; direct interviews; established research institutions; other journalism. Social media is a lead, never proof.
We do not cite a news article for a statistic when the original dataset is public. If a source is paywalled and we did not read it, we say we did not read it.
The exact source and link, the reporting period, the release date, the geography, whether the figure is preliminary, revised, seasonally adjusted or estimated, and the date and time we verified it. When two credible sources disagree, we publish the disagreement and explain what causes it — definition, timing, coverage or method. We do not quietly pick the more convenient number.
Three rules specific to our own data: no published statistic is computed from a display-capped file; monthly data is never called "live," only "latest available" with its period and publication lag; and a figure is labeled with the geography it actually covers, so a county number says county even when the headline market is a city.
Every article carries one: News, Data Analysis, Explainer, Investigation, Guide, Analysis, Opinion, or Momentum. The last one marks anything about our owner's business. It never looks like a news story.
We never present a forecast as a fact. When we write about what may happen next, we name the mechanism, state the assumptions, give more than one plausible outcome, and say what evidence would confirm or break each one. Third-party forecasts are attributed to whoever made them.
We describe the strongest supported version of each relevant position. We contact people and organizations facing meaningful criticism and give them real time to respond. We do not manufacture balance when one side has no evidence. We disclose financial interests.
We do not describe who a neighborhood is "for," and we do not make subjective safety claims. Housing coverage has a long history of coded language about protected classes, and we write about places using measurable facts: prices, housing stock, taxes, construction, transportation, public amenities, and data attributed to a named source with a date. We comply with fair housing law and with the Fair Housing Act's advertising rules.
We do not give individualized legal, tax, insurance, investment or financial advice. We explain how things work and tell you when to consult a licensed professional.
We do not publish automated home-value estimates.
Jon Brooks writes and edits this publication. When we are wrong, we say so on the story, in public, with the original left standing. See corrections.
This publication is funded by Momentum Realty and edited by one of its co-founders. See ownership and funding and conflicts of interest for exactly what that means and how we handle it.