How Rankings and Percentiles Work
Category and published scores are relative to a scoring cohort: county, then state, then national when fewer than six listings are available. City and neighborhood ranks are separate, and a score is not itself a percentile.
Scores and ranks are different
HousRank category scores and the published 0 to 100 score are cohort-relative. Each is produced by comparing listings in the scoring cohort and mapping their relative position to a score range. The score itself is not a percentile.
City and neighborhood ranks are separate rank calculations. A city or neighborhood rank should not be confused with the county, state, or national cohort used for scoring.
The scoring cohort
Scoring uses the first available cohort with at least six listings:
- County, when it has at least six listings.
- State, when the county has fewer than six and the state has at least six listings.
- National, when both the county and state have fewer than six listings.
Why percentiles beat raw ranks
A raw rank like "#3" needs context about the group size. A percentile describes relative position within a specified group, while a rank is an ordinal position in that group. Neither should be inferred from the published score, which is a cohort-relative score on a 0 to 100 scale, not a percentile.
City and neighborhood ranks
City and neighborhood rank values are separate from the scoring cohort. They answer where a listing stands in those respective ranking groups and do not change the meaning of its category scores or published score.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the same home have different ranks?
City and neighborhood ranks are separate from the scoring cohort, which uses county, state, or national listings depending on cohort size. Different comparison groups can produce different rank positions.
What does a percentile mean here?
A percentile describes relative position within a specified group. For example, top 5% means a listing ranks above roughly 95% of the group. The published HousRank score is not itself a percentile.
Which ranking should I trust most?
Use city or neighborhood ranks for those specific comparison groups. The category and published scores use the county, state, or national scoring cohort selected based on the minimum cohort size.