← Methodology
§ Signal · Demand Dial · v1 · April 2026

The Demand Dial.

We don't boost scores for places we like. Demand lives in its own dial — shown alongside every score — so you can read cost and desirability honestly instead of through each other.

§ 01 · Inputs

Revealed preferences, not surveys.

Every input is an action people actually took — moving, bidding above list, paying premium rent-to-price — not a survey answer or a quality ranking.

Where people are moving

Net domestic migration into a ZIP — the most direct revealed preference.

Where they're paying up

Rent-to-price pressure, sale-to-list intensity, share of homes selling above list — markets where buyers and renters bid against fundamentals.

Long-term appreciation

Multi-year price trajectory — places that have rewarded staying invested.

§ 02 · What it means

High demand isn't automatically “buy”.

A high demand dial means people are moving in, paying up, and transacting fast. It does not automatically mean good to buy — that depends on your persona. A seller reads high demand as leverage; a buyer reads it as cost pressure.

§ 03 · Why it's separate

Markets score what they score.

A previous version of HavenScore lifted the composite for high-demand markets by up to 22%. That was a marketing decision pretending to be math. We removed the boost and promoted demand to its own dial, shown alongside the score. Markets score what they score.

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