How Rankings and Percentiles Work
A home's rank is always relative to a cohort. HousRank ranks every home within its neighborhood, city, county, state, and the full HousRank dataset, so the same home can sit at different percentiles depending on the comparison group.
A rank is always relative
A HousRank score is absolute — the same 0–100 number wherever you look. A rank is relative: it answers "where does this home stand compared to others?" and the answer depends entirely on which group you compare against.
That's why HousRank computes a home's standing within five nested cohorts. The same home can be near the top of its neighborhood yet middle-of-the-pack nationally, and both facts are true at once.
The five cohorts
Each home is ranked within progressively larger groups. Reading from the most local to the broadest:
- Neighborhood — homes in the same named neighborhood.
- City — all homes in the same city.
- County — all homes in the same county.
- State — every home in the same state.
- National — the full HousRank dataset across all areas.
Why percentiles beat raw ranks
A raw rank like "#3" means little without knowing the size of the group — third out of five is very different from third out of five thousand. Percentiles normalize for that: a home in the top 5% of its city is in the top 5% whether the city has 200 homes or 20,000. Leaderboards lean on percentiles and top-N lists so comparisons stay fair across areas of very different sizes.
How rankings stay consistent
Rankings are computed across the whole dataset together, so every home in a cohort is measured the same way at the same time. When new listings are added or data changes, the rankings are recomputed so the standings stay coherent rather than drifting out of sync with each other.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the same home have different ranks?
Because a rank is relative to a cohort. A home is ranked separately within its neighborhood, city, county, state, and nationally, so it can be top-tier locally and average nationally at the same time.
What does a percentile mean here?
It's the home's standing as a share of its cohort — the top 5% in a city means it scores higher than 95% of homes in that city, regardless of how many homes the city has.
Which ranking should I trust most?
It depends on your search. If you're buying in a specific area, the city or neighborhood rank is most relevant. If you're comparing across regions, the state or national view is more useful.