How NabeWise builds a neighborhood score

The formula

For each official planning area n in Austin:

fit = (safety·w_s + schools·w_k + walk·w_w + cost·w_c + vibe·w_v + commute·w_j) / Σw

Each axis is 0–100 inside this city set only. Safety inverts Part I crime per 1,000 residents (percentile). Walk and vibe min–max OSM amenity density. Cost is 100 at or under your budget, then falls. Commute inverts weekday minutes to the job center you pick. Missing school data sits at 50.

Six axes, 0–100

Safety inverts Part I crime per 1,000 residents (violent + property) among these Austin areas. Downtown nightlife and visitors inflate counts; the rate is not a judgment of residents.

Schools still uses a nearby-school rating when present. Missing data sits at mid-scale; turn school weight off if you are not searching with kids.

Walk counts OpenStreetMap groceries, cafes, parks, and transit stops inside the planning area or within 800m of its centroid.

Cost is 100 when ACS median home or rent is at or under your budget, then falls as price exceeds it.

Vibe uses OSM cafe, park, restaurant, and bar density. Quiet mode inverts bar weight.

Commute is typical weekday minutes to a job center you pick (downtown, campus, tech, or the city’s equivalent). Faster is better, ranked only among Austin areas. The numbers are baked from neighborhood geography — not live traffic, not Google. Leave work on “Anywhere” to drop this axis.

Hard filters

Filters hide neighborhoods instead of reweighting them. Within budget keeps ACS median rent or home at or under your slider. On transit requires at least three OSM transit stops. Has a park requires three parks. Skip nightlife drops areas flagged for nightlife or with dense bars. A max commute uses your workplace, or the city’s primary job center if you have not picked one.

Default weights

Pick a workplace and commute takes 25 points; the other five axes scale to 75 so the total stays 100.

Sources

People and housing come from the U.S. Census ACS 2024 5-year (2020-2024) for Travis County tracts. Each planning area inherits the tracts whose centroid falls inside it, or the tract that contains the neighborhood centroid. Medians are household-weighted across those tracts. Where ACS suppresses a median (common for home value in renter-heavy areas), we keep the last published figure.

Safety counts APD Part I reports from Sep 2025 – Aug 2026: murder, robbery, and aggravated assault as violent; theft, burglary, and auto theft as property. Incidents join on census block group to the same tracts, then to the planning area, and are expressed per 1,000 ACS residents. Reports without a category or block group are dropped.

Walk and vibe count OpenStreetMap amenities (© OpenStreetMap contributors) tagged as supermarket/grocery/convenience, cafe, bar/pub/nightclub, park/playground, bus stop or rail station, and restaurant/fast food. A point counts if it sits inside the official polygon or within 800 meters of the polygon centroid. Snapshot 2026-08-31.

Boundaries are City of Austin Neighborhood Planning Areas (inrm-c3ee). Listings are not MLS.

ACS/APD pulled 2026-08-31. OSM pulled 2026-08-31.

Limits

A neighborhood score is not a crime prediction, a school assignment, or a listing price. ACS medians lag the market and mix all bedrooms. Police Part I mixes residents and visitors. OSM misses shops that never got tagged. Commute minutes ignore traffic, transit waits, and the job you actually have. Rankings never cross city lines — Hyde Park in Austin is not Hyde Park in Chicago.

Guides such as best for families freeze editorial weights so every reader sees the same list.