Frequently asked questions

BelongMaps is a web application that helps home buyers discover areas matching their unique lifestyle criteria through geographic filter overlays on an interactive map. You can filter locations based on crime rates, school quality, proximity to amenities, environmental factors, and much more.

Yes. You can use every filter except the commute filter and explore the map without an account, combining up to 3 filters at a time. An account lets you save a filter set for later. Premium removes the 3-filter limit and adds the commute filter.

Every filter except commute times is available on a free account. The main difference is how many you can combine at once: free accounts layer up to 3 filters at a time, and Premium removes that limit. Premium also adds commute-time filters, private school data, unlimited saved filter sets, the Google Maps base map with satellite view, and no ads.

BelongMaps shows AREAS that match your criteria, not individual listings. The highlighted regions indicate neighborhoods where historical sale prices fall within your selected range. You need to zoom in to at least level 10 to see the filter overlay. Also remember that our pricing is based on historical sales data, which may differ significantly from current listing prices in hot markets.

Housing costs are calculated using historical sale records from public county and state deed transfer databases. We aggregate sales data at the neighborhood level (census tracts) and compute the median sale price for each area. This gives you a realistic picture of what people have actually paid for homes in different neighborhoods.

Our pricing data comes from official public records (deed transfers, property tax assessments) and is generally very accurate for what it represents: historical sale prices. However, it's important to understand that this is NOT current listing data. In rapidly appreciating markets, current prices may be 10-30% higher than our historical data suggests. Use our filters to identify promising areas, then check Zillow or Redfin for current listings.

Because combining filters is the part that takes real work to build. One map of flood risk or school quality is easy to find elsewhere; narrowing the whole country down to the few places that clear your budget AND your commute AND your risk tolerance is the thing BelongMaps exists to do. Free accounts get 3 layers at once, which is enough to answer most questions, and subscriptions from people who need more pay for the data pipelines behind every layer. A couple of filters do cost us money every time they run — commute times are calculated live against road and transit networks — so those stay on the paid plan.

No. The prices shown are based on historical sale data from public records, not current listings. We use historical data because direct access to Zillow/Redfin listing prices is not available through their APIs. Historical prices provide a good proxy for affordability in an area.

We aggregate data from multiple reliable sources including government agencies (FEMA, FBI), public records, and third-party APIs. Data is cached and updated regularly. Some data points like crime rates and school quality are updated monthly, while others like flood zones are updated as official maps change.

Yes! While browsing the map, you can click on "View in Zillow" or "View in Redfin" buttons to open the current area in those platforms to see current listings.

Currently, BelongMaps covers the entire United States. We do not support international locations at this time.

You can cancel your subscription at any time through the "Manage Subscription" button on the Subscription page. Your premium access will continue until the end of your billing period.

The slider is a percentile threshold within each school's own type. Public and private schools are ranked separately, so a setting of "Top 25%" shows the top 25% of public schools AND the top 25% of private schools when both are selected — not an apples-to-apples claim about absolute quality across types. Public and private schools draw on different signals (public schools have standardized state outcome data; private schools do not), so direct cross-type comparisons are most reliable at the extremes (top few percent, bottom few percent) and less so in the middle. "Median+" shows roughly half of each population. We snap the slider to deciles (10% steps) for fast, predictable rendering.

Every public and private K-12 school in the US gets a score from 1 to 10, built from free public data. A school is never dropped for having gaps. We skip the missing piece and score the school on what we have. Public schools are scored mostly on state test results, especially how much students improve. Private schools have no state testing, so they are scored on things like accreditation, class sizes and where graduates go. The two types are ranked separately rather than pooled into one list. When a score rests on only a little information, we pull it toward what is typical for similar schools, so a thinly measured school can't swing to the top or bottom on almost no evidence. If there is too little to go on, the map says "Insufficient data" instead of showing a number. Our methodology page explains what goes in, how missing data is handled, and what the score can't tell you.

Read the full school scoring methodology

The Water Quality filter combines three EPA data sources to flag known water quality hazards. It flags: (1) areas within 500 feet of impaired surface waters from EPA ATTAINS (rivers, lakes, streams on the 303(d) list), (2) areas within 1 mile of EPA Superfund/NPL contaminated sites, and (3) areas served by drinking water systems with active health-based violations (EPA SDWIS). Yellow overlay shows areas not flagged by any source. Waters that states have not assessed are included. They are not on EPA’s impaired-waters list, but no measurements are available. Areas outside a drinking-water violation or more than 1 mile from a Superfund site are not confirmed safe. Private wells are not covered by the drinking-water data. Brownfields, leaking fuel tanks and other smaller contaminated sites are in the Soil Contamination filter, not this one. Data is refreshed quarterly (SDWIS) to biennially (ATTAINS).