The Area Brief · Members
Your area, from the record.
The public record of a Texas ZIP code in one checked place: how the market moved, what is being built, what it costs to own here, what rent does, what is changing on the ground. Every line with its source and its date.
Launching Monday 12 October 2026
The first areas open in
Every member gets every area page in full. Annual members also get a CSV of any area and a Monday morning email of what changed in the areas they save. Included in membership at $9 a month, $12 from 1 December 2026.
What an Area Page Shows
- Market
- Texas does not make sale prices public, so no page lists one. Instead: the city's and county's median price, sales, listings and months of inventory month by month from the MLS association's own public report, the ZIP's yearly price index from FHFA, and the Census Bureau's owner-reported home value.
- Coming
- Building permits issued in the ZIP: what the work is, where, and when it was issued, as the city publishes them - live in Austin, and said plainly where a city keeps them off open data.
- Cost of Owning
- The combined property tax rate and every taxing unit behind it, the state's average insurance premium with its source and year, the TEA rating of every school located in the ZIP, and where to look up a flood zone by address.
- Rentals and Rules
- HUD's Fair Market Rents for the ZIP by bedroom count, the Census Bureau's median rent, and how many short-term rentals hold a licence in the ZIP - counts by type, never an address.
- Signals
- What is moving under the surface: code complaint cases opened and their kinds, where the county clerk posts foreclosure notices, and how many licensed agents and brokers work the county. Counts and trends only - never a property, never a name.
- What Changed This Week
- The top of every page, open to everyone: the month's market figures, the permits issued this week, the change in licensed rentals, any change in what it costs to own here - each with its date.
Find a Texas ZIP
The First Areas
Four Texas ZIP codes chosen for what their records show, then the rest of Austin - every ZIP the city's own feeds cover. More of Texas follows as the feeds cover it, then the UK; anyone can request a ZIP above.
Austin, Travis County
78704 · South Austin
Austin publishes every building permit as live open data, so what is coming is on the record the day it is issued.
Open the page →
Austin, Travis County
78702 · East Austin
The same live permit record, for the ZIP just east of downtown.
Open the page →
Houston, Harris County
77008 · The Heights
Texas A&M's monthly figures for the ZIP, with Houston's permits as the city publishes them, monthly.
Open the page →
Dallas, Dallas County
75204 · Uptown
Texas A&M's monthly figures for the ZIP; Dallas keeps its active permits in its own permit portal.
Open the page →
Austin · 32 ZIP codes on the record
- 78701Downtown
- 78703Tarrytown and Clarksville
- 78705West Campus and North University
- 78721East MLK
- 78722Cherrywood and French Place
- 78723Windsor Park and Mueller
- 78724Colony Park and East Austin
- 78725Hornsby Bend and Southeast Austin
- 78726Four Points
- 78727Milwood and North Austin
- 78730River Place
- 78731Northwest Hills
- 78735Oak Hill and Barton Creek
- 78736West Oak Hill
- 78739Circle C
- 78741Riverside and Montopolis
- 78744McKinney and Southeast Austin
- 78745Westgate and South Austin
- 78747Onion Creek and Far South Austin
- 78748Shady Hollow and South Austin
- 78749Sunset Valley and Southwest Austin
- 78750Anderson Mill and Northwest Austin
- 78751Hyde Park
- 78752St. Johns and Highland
- 78753North Lamar and Walnut Creek
- 78754Harris Branch and Northeast Austin
- 78756Rosedale and Brentwood
- 78757Crestview and Allandale
- 78758North Burnet and The Domain
- 78759Great Hills and Arboretum
Where the Numbers Come From
The Texas A&M Real Estate Research Center, the cities' own permit and licensing records, the county clerks and tax offices, the Texas Education Agency, FEMA, HUD and the Census Bureau. Nothing on an area page comes from a listings portal, and no one's contact details appear beyond what a permit record publishes. Every line links to the record it was read from, with the date we read it - the same rule as the Ledger.