How we score buildings

We help you see what's great about a place AND what's worth knowing before you sign. We don't dump negativity.

Critical issues are prominent because you deserve to know about them — but they're presented as considerations, not verdicts. Every building page balances strengths and considerations in equal visual weight, so a place you're excited about doesn't get drowned in red flags. The product is a scale, not a warning sign.

That principle drives our voice (no “avoid”, “dangerous”, “distressed”), our scoring band labels (Strong / Mixed / Significant Issues), and our refusal to surface signals that have nothing to do with the building itself.

Building Quality answers one question: is this a well-maintained, well-run building? It is computed only from building-level facts — nothing about the neighborhood, the price, or who lives there.

Output is a 0–10 number with a band label:

• Strong — 7.0 and above
• Mixed — 4.0 to 6.9
• Significant Issues — below 4.0

Note on language: we deliberately don't use “Caution”, “Distressed”, or “Avoid”. The lowest band is a clear flag, not a verdict on whether you should rent there.

Unit Value answers a different question: is this a fair price for the area?

We compute the building's active-listing average price and compare it to the median rent for the same neighborhood and bedroom-count tier (drawn from RentCast and partner-feed listings). The result is a categorical badge, not a number, because direct numeric comparison of “value” across very different neighborhoods invites bad inferences:

• Deal — 10%+ below the neighborhood median
• Below Market — 2.5–10% below
• At Market — within ~5% of the median
• Above Market — 5%+ above the median

The supporting price delta is shown next to the badge so you can see exactly how it compares.

Each building shows up to three Highlights (what's great about this place) and up to three Things to Know (real considerations before you sign). They're drawn from the same DB facts that feed the scores, but presented as plain-language statements with the supporting numbers attached.

Both sides have equal visual weight on the page. We never use warning iconography (red triangles, etc.) for Things to Know — just a neutral information dot. If we have nothing genuine to put on either side we say so plainly: “Limited data — verify with a tour.”

We deliberately exclude any signal that proxies for a Fair-Housing protected class. None of the following enter our scoring or display logic:

• Race, ethnicity, or national origin of residents
• Income or wealth distribution of residents
• Demographic composition of any kind
• Neighborhood crime data — we historically experimented with NYPD crime statistics and removed them entirely for FHA compliance
• School district quality or test scores
• Any neighborhood “safety score” that wraps the above

Building Quality is per-building. Unit Value compares to a neighborhood-bedroom-tier median rent baseline — that baseline is a math function of public listing data, not a demographic signal.

SpottedNYC is committed to complying with the federal Fair Housing Act and all applicable state and local fair housing laws. Our services provide factual, public data about buildings — including violations and market pricing — and are not intended to, and must not be used to, discriminate against any person based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Read the full commitment in our Terms of Service, Section 5.

• NYC Department of Buildings (DOB) — building registry, BIN, building class, year built
• NYC Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) — violation history
• NYC Property Address Directory (PAD) — canonical address-to-BIN mapping
• NYC PLUTO — lot-level property records
• NYC 311 — heat, pest, elevator, and noise complaints
• DHCR — rent stabilization records
• RentCast + partner feeds — market rent data
• Google Places — ratings and reviews
• Management website scrapes — leasing contact, amenities, fees, pet policy

Each surface that displays data shows a sync timestamp. Most sources are refreshed daily; HPD violation history is refreshed within 48 hours of publication.

• Public records have lag. Violations are filed by inspectors after the fact. A clean record today doesn't guarantee no issues are forming.
• 311 calls reflect who calls 311. Buildings with tenants who self-advocate may have higher complaint counts than buildings where tenants don't engage with the system. We surface counts as context, not as character judgments.
• Some 311 reports use placeholder addresses. NYC dispatchers occasionally route calls to a default street address when the precise building isn't known, which can pile hundreds of unrelated complaints onto a single building. To stop this from misrepresenting any one building, we cap the displayed complaint counts at 500 per category per year. The raw NYC data is still public and unmodified at NYC Open Data if you want to verify any specific building. If a count looks wrong, please email [email protected] — we want to know.
• Coverage varies. Older, smaller buildings often have less data than large managed properties. We say “Limited data — verify with a tour” rather than fabricate signals.
• We can't replace a tour. Online research narrows your options. Walking the unit, meeting the super, and talking to current tenants is irreplaceable.

Found something that looks wrong? Tell us and we'll investigate. Use the Report button on any building page, or contact us via the link in the footer.