Sources

Every feed the site is built from. These are inputs, not endorsements: each town page lists which of these files each of its figures came from.

Census Gazetteer Census Population Estimates ACS 5-year Building Permits Survey National Register Census TIGERweb Amtrak · MTA Zillow Research IRS Statistics of Income NYS Dept. of Health OSRM over OpenStreetMap OpenStreetMap DRI · NY Forward

Census Gazetteer Files (places)

annual · last pulled 2026-10-05

U.S. Census Bureau

Used for: Place coordinates (internal point) and land area.
Licence: Public domain (U.S. federal government work)
Attribution: U.S. Census Bureau, Gazetteer Files, 2024
Where: https://www2.census.gov/geo/docs/maps-data/data/gazetteer/2024_Gazetteer/2024_Gaz_place_national.zip

Population Estimates, sub-county (cities and towns)

annual · last pulled 2026-10-05

U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program

Used for: Latest population, legal type, county of each place; population change since 2020 and its statewide benchmark for momentum.
Licence: Public domain (U.S. federal government work)
Attribution: U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2024 Population Estimates
Where: https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/datasets/2020-2024/cities/totals/sub-est2024.csv

American Community Survey 5-year estimates

annual · last pulled 2026-09-18

U.S. Census Bureau

Used for: Home value, rent, income, vacancy, housing age, broadband, poverty, commute, enrollment.
Licence: Public domain (U.S. federal government work)
Attribution: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
Where: https://api.census.gov/data/{year}/acs/acs5

Building Permits Survey, place-level annual (Northeast region)

annual · last pulled 2026-09-18

U.S. Census Bureau

Used for: Housing units permitted per year (3-year rolling mean per 1,000 residents) and the change in that rate over two years for momentum.
Licence: Public domain (U.S. federal government work)
Attribution: U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey
Where: https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/Place/Northeast%20Region/ne{year}a.txt

National Register of Historic Places, spatial data

quarterly · last pulled 2026-09-18

National Park Service

Used for: Whether a listed historic district lies within the place.
Licence: Public domain (U.S. federal government work)
Attribution: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places
Where: https://mapservices.nps.gov/arcgis/rest/services/cultural_resources/nrhp_locations/MapServer

TIGERweb incorporated place boundaries

annual · last pulled not yet used

U.S. Census Bureau

Used for: Place polygons for spatial joins (historic districts, OSM business counts).
Licence: Public domain (U.S. federal government work)
Attribution: U.S. Census Bureau, TIGERweb
Where: https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer/4/query

Rail stations (Amtrak and Metro-North)

annual · last pulled 2026-09-18

U.S. DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics; MTA

Used for: Straight-line miles from each place to the nearest passenger rail station.
Licence: Public domain (BTS NTAD); MTA developer data terms (GTFS)
Attribution: BTS National Transportation Atlas Database; MTA Metro-North Railroad GTFS
Where: https://services.arcgis.com/xOi1kZaI0eWDREZv/arcgis/rest/services/NTAD_Amtrak_Stations/FeatureServer/0/query

Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI) and Observed Rent Index (ZORI), city level

monthly · last pulled 2026-10-05

Zillow Research

Used for: Current home value and rent where Zillow covers the place, their one-year change and the statewide benchmark for momentum; gaps stay gaps.
Licence: Free to use with attribution (Zillow Research data terms)
Attribution: Zillow Research, ZHVI and ZORI
Where: https://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public_csvs/zhvi/City_zhvi_uc_sfrcondo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv, https://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public_csvs/zori/City_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_month.csv

SOI Tax Stats, county-to-county migration data

annual · last pulled 2026-09-19

Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income Division

Used for: Net migration of tax filers for each town's county (the IRS publishes county level only), per 1,000 of the county's filing population, and the statewide benchmark for momentum v2.
Licence: Public domain (U.S. federal government work)
Attribution: IRS Statistics of Income, County-to-County Migration Data
Where: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/county{flow}{years}.csv

NYS Health Facility General Information

monthly · last pulled not yet used

New York State Department of Health (Health Data NY)

Used for: Hospital locations for drive time to the nearest hospital.
Licence: Open data (NYS Open Data terms of use)
Attribution: New York State Department of Health, Health Facility General Information
Where: https://health.data.ny.gov/api/views/vn5v-hh5r/rows.csv?accessType=DOWNLOAD

OSRM routing (public demo server)

once per town, cached · last pulled 2026-09-18

Project OSRM, OpenStreetMap contributors

Used for: Drive minutes to New York City, the nearest regional hub, and the nearest hospital.
Licence: ODbL (OpenStreetMap data); demo server usage policy, one request per second
Attribution: Routing by OSRM using OpenStreetMap data (c) OpenStreetMap contributors
Where: https://router.project-osrm.org/table/v1/driving/{coords}

OpenStreetMap via Overpass API

monthly · last pulled 2026-10-05

OpenStreetMap contributors

Used for: Count of storefront businesses and services inside the place boundary.
Licence: ODbL
Attribution: (c) OpenStreetMap contributors, via Overpass API
Where: https://overpass-api.de/api/interpreter

Downtown Revitalization Initiative and NY Forward awards

annual · last pulled 2026-09-18

New York State (ny.gov)

Used for: Which places won a state downtown award, in which round and year.
Licence: NYS web content, public information
Attribution: New York State Department of State, DRI and NY Forward program pages
Where: https://www.ny.gov/programs/downtown-revitalization-initiative, https://www.ny.gov/programs/ny-forward