Methods · Mountain View
How Open Rent builds its rental housing data
A guide to the sources, classifications, and rent figures behind Open Rent, and what the data can and cannot tell us.
Evidence for better housing decisions
Research & insights.
What we’re learning about rental housing. The methods behind our data, the questions we’re asking, and the work ahead.
Featured · Methods
How Open Rent builds its rental housing data
From scattered records to a clearer picture. Explore the sources, methods, and limitations behind the Mountain View pilot.
Read the methodologyOpen Rent Initiative · Methodology v1.0, revised July 8, 2026
All publications
3 publications
Research · Citizen Codex
Rent Madness: Why is America's Rental Data So Bad?(opens in a new tab)
The report that started it all. A deep look at why rental data is fragmented, stale, and inaccessible, and what it costs us as a country.
Research · Citizen Codex
Seeing a city's full rental landscape(opens in a new tab)
How geospatial analysis helped map St. Paul's rental market neighborhood by neighborhood, and what it revealed about the limits of conventional data sources.
Original title: “How We Used Geospatial Analysis to Understand St. Paul's Rental Market”
Explore the data behind the work.
Start with Mountain View: its rental housing stock and the evidence behind it.