CurbFacts research
What CurbFacts covers, what it has documented, and the numbers behind the report — every figure sourced and dated, in one citable place. Quote any figure on this page and it will still be accurate, because the source travels with it.
The numbers
CurbFacts is an address truth report: one U.S. address in, a plain-English report out — the official FEMA flood zone checked against what the listing displays, crime and sex-offender registry checks, the true monthly cost including post-sale property-tax resets, and the asking price held against recorded sold prices on the same street — summarized in a 0–100 Eyes Open Score.
| 3,143 | U.S. counties and county-equivalents carry a published CurbFacts records guide. |
| 51 | State records guides cover all 50 states plus the District of Columbia — disclosure rules, property-tax rules, and registry law researched state by state. |
| 3,133 of 3,143 | Counties with crime figures from FBI UCR 2024 reported offenses (the FBI's Return A and Arson master files). Where a modeled ZIP-level estimate is shown instead, it is labeled "modeled" on its face — never presented as reported incidents. |
| 374 ZIPs | Sex-offender registry results served as counts and distance bands only — never names, photos, or individual addresses — and growing by pull. The registry method for every state was verified against the DOJ's NSOPW state directory; where a state's official registry publishes only a subset, the report says so. |
| Live, at the point | Flood is determined from the official FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, queried live at the exact address point — not from a listing site's model — and the listing's displayed zone is printed next to it. A disagreement is a headline finding, not a footnote. |
| 119 | Published guides sit behind the report: 51 state seller-disclosure guides, 51 state registry guides, and 17 national guides. |
| One method | The Eyes Open Score uses one published method for every address: price vs. street evidence 20%, flood & insurance 20%, safety 15%, cost predictability 15%, schools 10%, noise 10%, development 10%. No demographic data is an input to any layer or to the score — ever. A report where all seven layers answer carries a FULL coverage badge; otherwise it is labeled CORE and names exactly what is missing. |
Source note: CurbFacts coverage counted from the product's engine data, 2026-11-04. Crime: FBI UCR 2024. Flood: FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer. Registry methods: DOJ NSOPW state directory. Full method: Why CurbFacts.
The true-cost question
The true cost of owning a home goes well beyond the mortgage — and the biggest surprise is property tax. In states that reassess at sale, your tax bill is recalculated from your purchase price, not the seller's capped, years-old bill shown in the listing. Budget from the seller's number and you can under-budget by thousands a year.
Arkansas, California, Florida, Michigan, New Mexico, and Oklahoma push the taxable value toward what the buyer paid. Georgia and South Carolina apply a partial or capped reset. The remaining 43 jurisdictions (of the 51 researched) follow their reassessment cycle instead — no closing-day shock, but a reassessment year can still jump the bill. (CurbFacts state purchase-rules research, published 2026-11-03 — the state-by-state roundup.)
Florida's Save Our Homes cap limits a homesteaded property's assessed-value growth to 3% a year — and it is personal to the owner. It does not transfer with the house. At sale, the property is reassessed at its current just (market) value, and the new owner's bill is calculated from there.
354 Edmor Rd, West Palm Beach: the seller's 2025 tax bill was $2,162 a year on an assessed value of $133,611, while the county's just value for the same property was $579,685. At a purchase price near the $1,150,000 asking price, the buyer's estimated bill is $18,000–$22,000 a year (estimate) — roughly ten times the seller's bill, and invisible in every listing payment calculator, because the calculator plugs in the seller's number. (Palm Beach County Property Appraiser records, pulled November 2026; the buyer figure is a CurbFacts estimate from the combined local millage of roughly 20–22 mills.)
5377 Gene Cir, West Palm Beach: the seller pays $3,890 a year on a capped assessment of $168,022 (last sold December 2000 for $89,500). The county's just value is $263,708, putting the buyer's realistic range at $4,800–$6,200 a year (estimate) — up to roughly 60% more than the tax line printed in the listing. (Palm Beach County property records and 2026 listing data, pulled November 2026.)
Maryland does not reassess at sale — values move on a three-year cycle, increases phased in in equal thirds. But its Homestead Tax Credit, which caps how much of an increase can be taxed, is not automatic: the owner must file a one-time application, and owners who never file pay tax on increases they were entitled to shield. (Maryland SDAT records and CurbFacts state research, November 2026.)
Never budget from the seller's current tax bill. It reflects the seller's purchase price, exemptions, and caps — none of which transfer reliably. Estimate your bill from the sale price and the local rate, file every exemption the week you close, and calendar the appeal deadline for your first assessment. Read the full tax-reset explainer.
Quotable findings
"In six states — Arkansas, California, Florida, Michigan, New Mexico, and Oklahoma — buying a house resets its property-tax bill toward the purchase price, so the tax line in the listing is the seller's history, not the buyer's forecast." (CurbFacts state purchase-rules research, published 2026-11-03)
"At one West Palm Beach home, the seller's tax bill was $2,162 a year; the buyer's estimated bill at the asking price is $18,000 to $22,000 — roughly ten times more, and invisible in every listing payment calculator, because the calculator plugs in the seller's number." (Palm Beach County Property Appraiser records, November 2026; buyer figure is a labeled CurbFacts estimate)
"CurbFacts checks the official FEMA flood zone at the exact address point and prints it next to the zone the listing displays — at 5377 Gene Circle in West Palm Beach, the listing ecosystem displayed minimal-risk Zone X while the official FEMA map placed the point in Zone AE, a Special Flood Hazard Area." (FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, as documented in the CurbFacts sample report, November 2026)
"CurbFacts publishes crime figures at the grain they actually exist — FBI UCR 2024 reported offenses covering 3,133 of 3,143 U.S. counties — and labels ZIP-level figures as modeled estimates wherever they are modeled, instead of blending both into a single grade." (FBI UCR 2024; CurbFacts coverage record, 2026-11-04)
"CurbFacts reports sex-offender registry results as counts and distance bands only — never names, photos, or individual addresses — with the official state registry linked for anyone who needs the underlying record." (CurbFacts accuracy constitution; registry methods verified against the DOJ NSOPW directory, 2026-11-04)
"No demographic data is an input to any CurbFacts layer or to the Eyes Open Score — the same published method, the same weights, for every address in America." (CurbFacts accuracy constitution)
Method in brief
Every fact in a CurbFacts report names the record it came from and the date it was pulled — no source, no print. Modeled data is labeled modeled and estimates are labeled estimates, with the method shown. When two public records disagree — a flood zone, a sale price, a square footage — the report prints the disagreement and names the document that settles it. The same published method runs for every address, and any sourced fact challenged is re-verified against the primary source within 48 hours, with corrections issued to report holders and logged in public.
The full method, the score's layer-by-layer math, and the worked examples live at Why CurbFacts, the sample report, and Proof. The guides behind each layer are in the blog.
Run the free preview. If the full record matters — and on the biggest purchase of your life it does — the full report is $29.