Platform · Glossary
Local area.
Local area is 3Y’s adaptive geographic context around the census tract where a property sits. It begins with the property’s tract and, where needed, expands through nearby tracts to resolve locally grounded signals used in the 3Y Location Score™.
Unlike a fixed-radius view, Local area is organized around population scale and proximity. It generally targets about 12,000 residents — roughly the population of three typical census tracts. Three tracts is a useful way to understand the scale, not a requirement. A sufficiently populated focal tract may stand on its own, while a sparse area may require nearby tracts to build a useful local context.
Why it is adaptive
A fixed distance does not describe the same local context everywhere. One mile in a dense city may contain a large population and several distinct market conditions. The same distance in a sparse area may contain too little residential context to support a useful local reading.
Local area addresses that problem by expanding only as needed around the property’s tract. It is based on population mass and proximity, not on a fixed radius or a required number of tracts.
The five-mile boundary
The Local area walk is bounded: 3Y does not extend the search for nearby tract centroids beyond five miles from the focal tract centroid.
In sparse locations, a usable local reading may not be available within that boundary. When that happens, relevant metrics use a broader reliable fallback, such as county subdivision or county data, rather than presenting thin local data as more precise than it is.
A reported geographic footprint may extend beyond five miles when an accepted tract itself covers a large area. The five-mile rule limits how far the search reaches for additional tract centroids; it does not shrink the physical size of an included tract.
Local area and fixed-distance views are different
3Y uses two different ways of describing surrounding context:
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Local area — an adaptive, population-based geography used to resolve local signals for the 3Y Location Score™.
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Fixed-distance views — 1-, 3-, and 5-mile views, where presented, based on nearby tract centroids around the property’s tract. For example, the 1-mile view includes surrounding tracts whose centroids fall within one mile of the focal tract centroid.
Local area is designed for comparable local signals across different settlement patterns. Fixed-distance views are designed to show how the surroundings change as distance increases.