Housing Intel

Compare Case-Shiller home price indices across multiple US metros in one call (the 20-city composite). For each metro returns latest level, 3-month change, 12-month change, all-time peak, drawdown from peak, and a softening flag. Output also ranks metros softest → strongest. Use for "which metros are softening", "Case-Shiller for [list of cities]", "compare housing prices in X, Y, Z" queries — picks the right per-metro FRED series IDs (DNXRSA, PHXRSA, TPXRSA, etc.) so callers don't have to. Available metros: Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa, Washington DC. NOT A CURRENT-MARKET READ: Case-Shiller is monthly, published on a roughly two-month lag, and each value is a three-month moving average — so the newest observation is typically 90-120 days old and describes a trailing quarter. The `freshness` block states the exact age of the call you made.

Check housing affordability in a market. Returns mortgage rate, median price, monthly payment, required income, and HUD limits. Optionally specify metro (e.g., "Denver"). The inputs are official statistics on DIFFERENT cadences — a weekly mortgage rate against a quarterly median price — so the monthly payment is an illustrative ratio of published figures, not a live quote. `freshness` states the span and the age of each input.

Assess labor market health for housing demand. Returns employment, construction jobs, residential building employment, unemployment rate, and job openings. All BLS monthly releases; each series carries its own `observation_date` and `cadence` (JOLTS runs an extra month behind CES/LAUS), and `freshness` states the span. `snapshot_date` is the call date, not the data date.

Rank US metros for rental cash flow in ONE call — the "which markets are best for a landlord" view. Returns metros sorted by gross rent yield = (Zillow median monthly rent × 12) ÷ Zillow typical home value. No per-metro orchestration and no API key. Use for "best/worst rental markets", "highest-yield metros", "where does rent go furthest vs. home prices". Tune with direction (top = highest yield / best cash flow, bottom = lowest), limit, and optional home-value bounds. rent_as_of and home_value_as_of are two independent Zillow queries and can land on different months; `freshness` says whether they matched this call.

Get national housing market overview: mortgage rates, housing starts, Case-Shiller index, unemployment, construction employment. Optionally add metro-level prices (e.g., "Denver", "Atlanta"). For comparing Case-Shiller across multiple metros use case_shiller_metro_compare instead. THE COMPONENTS DO NOT SHARE A DATE — they are weekly, monthly and quarterly official statistics, each published on its own lag, so one call can span months of vintages. `freshness` states the span in days and names the oldest component; read it before comparing components against each other.

Demand + rent-durability signals for a shortlist of US metros in ONE call — population & 5-year growth, renter share, median household income, and unemployment, straight from Census ACS. Deterministic by metro (CBSA-keyed) — NO FRED series-ID guessing. Pass `metros` ("City, ST", e.g. the top results from housing_market_screen). This is the Stage-2 "is the demand real?" filter on a yield shortlist — high yield in a shrinking metro is a trap. No API key needed. HIGHEST-LAG SOURCE IN THIS PACK: figures are a Census ACS 5-YEAR rolling average (currently 2018-2022, released Dec 2023) — for structural demand, not a current-quarter read. `freshness` states the exact age.

Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey — the weekly US mortgage INTEREST rate (the annual percentage borrowers pay on a home loan, e.g. 6.5%), back to 1971. This is the borrowing cost paid by home buyers. Returns the latest snapshot, a time series for the requested window, and min/max/avg stats. Sourced from Freddie Mac directly (not FRED), ingested weekly by the Pipeworx data pipeline.

Analyze a property by address and zip code. Returns valuation estimate, sales history, tax assessment, and detailed characteristics.

Evaluate rental investment potential by address and zip code. Returns estimated rent, fair market rents, and CPI rent trends.

Scan 45+ housing indicators for anomalies and reversals. Flags unusual moves across rates, starts, sales, prices, wages, unemployment, and rent. Each signal carries its own `observation_date` and `cadence` — series here span weekly (mortgage rate) to quarterly (median sales price), and Case-Shiller is additionally a 3-month moving average, so "turned negative" does not mean "this month" for every series. `freshness` states the full span and the oldest component.