Every report is assembled from open government sources. We do not hold a live registry — we hold a copy of one, and a copy can lag. So each layer below names its source and the day our copy runs through. Inside the report the same day is printed next to every layer, in a column called “Data through”.
These are event journals: each record carries the day it happened, so the day our copy runs through is read from the data itself, not from when we downloaded it. A line saying “no records at this address” is true up to that day — an inspector could have written one the day after.
| Layer | What it gives | Data through |
|---|---|---|
| Building permits | what has been built, altered or is under way at the address | 2026-07-25 |
| Inspectional Services violations | open code violations on the building | 2026-07-24 |
| Public works violations | how the neighbours keep the shared ground | 2026-07-24 |
| RentSmart tenant complaints | complaints on this building and on the ones next to it | 2026-07-26 |
| Police incident reports | incidents around the address, counted by distance | 2026-07-24 |
| Zoning board appeals | what the neighbours asked for and what they were granted | 2026-07-24 |
| Moving permits | the closest honest proxy for tenant turnover | 2026-07-25 |
Two of the city sets carry no event date at all — they state a condition, not a history. For those we print the day the set was downloaded and call it a snapshot. Passing a download day off as a last-record day would be a claim of a different strength.
| Layer | What it gives | Data through |
|---|---|---|
| Short-term rental eligibility | how many units nearby are let by the night | snapshot 2026-07-27 |
| Displacement risk index | pressure on tenants in the surrounding blocks | snapshot 2026-07-27 |
These are published in releases rather than as running journals, and the date that matters depends on the address — which survey year covers the lot, which assessment year the parcel record belongs to. A single site-wide date here would be a guess, so we do not print one: the exact date for your address is stated in the report.
| Layer | Source |
|---|---|
| Statewide parcels and assessment | MassGIS, Commonwealth of Massachusetts |
| Registry of Deeds records | Massachusetts Registries of Deeds |
| Aerial imagery by year | MassGIS orthoimagery programme |
| Laser scanning (lidar) | MassGIS / USGS lidar |
| Flood zones | FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer |
| Contaminated sites (21E) | Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection |
| Regulated facilities and releases | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency |
| School and district profiles | Massachusetts DESE |
| Street-level imagery | Mapillary, CC-BY-SA |
Boston-only sets exist for the City of Boston alone. For an address in another municipality the report says so in plain words instead of leaving a blank.