United States Property Transactions and Assessments Database

Over 400 million public records across more than 2,750 U.S. counties, covering more than 20 years of real estate activity. It includes property characteristics, geographic information, and prior valuations for approximately 150 million parcels in over 3,100 counties nationwide. The data is sourced by Zillow from a third-party provider and supplemented through a direct county collection program.

Use Cases

• Analyze deed transfers and mortgage patterns across more than 2,750 U.S. counties to study regional market cycles.
• Model property values using property characteristics and prior valuations for approximately 150 million parcels.
• Study foreclosure and auction trends over more than 20 years of temporal coverage.
• Assess property tax delinquency rates using tax record data segmented by geographic region.

Strengths

• Over 400 million detailed public records provide a large-scale foundation for analysis.
• Covers more than 20 years of deed transfers, mortgages, and foreclosures for longitudinal studies.
• Includes data for approximately 150 million parcels across over 3,100 counties, offering broad geographic coverage.

Limitations

• Temporal coverage varies greatly by county, with some records only available from the mid-2000s.
• The dataset contains known coverage gaps inherited from third-party sources due to varying county recording procedures.
• The data is very large, requiring researchers to plan for downloading specific geographic subsets.

Provenance

Source

Zillow, via a major third-party provider and direct county collection.

Collection Method

Sourced from a third-party provider and supplemented through Zillow's 'County Direct' program collecting data directly from county offices.

Time Range

Varies by county, with sufficient sample sizes for most areas from April 1996; some records extend to the early 1990s.

Freshness

Updated approximately twice per year.

Geography

United States, covering over 2,750 counties for transactions and over 3,100 counties for parcel data.