ZipCheckup Blog: Home Safety Data Guides

Comparing Home-Safety Evidence Across U.S. Metro Areas

A source-aware guide to comparing metro areas without turning incomplete ZIP data into a false safest-or-riskiest rankin...

Comparing Income and Water Data Responsibly

How to compare economic and drinking-water records without claiming a causal relationship that the data cannot prove.

How to Check Leaking Underground Storage Tank Records

What EPA and state tank records can reveal near a property, with limits on location and cleanup status.

How to Check Nuclear Facility Emergency-Planning Information

A guide to facility status, emergency-planning zones, and why distance alone is not a personal risk estimate.

How to Compare Household Income and Drinking-Water Evidence

A corrected methodology for studying an income-water pattern without relying on obsolete grades or causal language.

How to Estimate a Household Water-Mitigation Cost

A transparent framework for property-specific testing and mitigation instead of unsupported national ZIP cost totals.

How to Evaluate Lead Evidence Around Schools

A guide to separating school, housing, and drinking-water evidence instead of turning overlap into a diagnosis.

How to Evaluate Multiple Home-Safety Hazards Together

A method for reviewing lead, flood, and housing-age evidence without treating an old composite count as a current fact.

How to Evaluate Water Affordability Without Inventing a ZIP Rate

A corrected framework for comparing utility bills, income, and assistance programs with compatible data.

How to Interpret Drinking-Water Enforcement Records

A source-bound guide to EPA enforcement data that separates measured actions from unsupported ZIP-level conclusions.

How to Interpret Traffic-Crash Data Near Schools

A guide to crash records, geographic matching, and why historical incidents are not a prediction for one trip.

How to Interpret Underground Tank Cleanup Costs

A guide to program totals and site records without assigning a national average to a specific property.

How to Interpret USDA Food-Access Data

A geography-aware guide to food-access indicators without presenting a tract measure as a property-level score.

How to Investigate Aging Water Infrastructure

A practical framework for evaluating system age and condition without inventing a ZIP-level maintenance-debt estimate.

How to Investigate PFAS Evidence Near Military Installations

A source-bound approach to PFAS records that avoids treating proximity as proof of source or exposure.

How to Read Bridge Condition Data Near a Home

What federal bridge records can tell a homebuyer, and why a nearby bridge rating is not a ZIP-wide safety grade.

How to Read EPA Toxic Release Inventory Data Near a Home

A source-aware guide to facility-reported chemical releases, geographic matching, and important limits.

How to Read FEMA Flood Records for a ZIP Code

What flood-claim and hazard records show, and why historical payments do not predict the loss at a specific home.

How to Read HMDA Mortgage-Lending Data by Neighborhood

A careful guide to lending outcomes, geography, and the limits of connecting mortgage records to infrastructure risk.

How to Read Superfund Site Data Near a Home

A guide to EPA site status, location, cleanup evidence, and the limits of proximity-based conclusions.

How to Use EPA Environmental-Justice and Air Data

A guide to geographic screening indicators, block-group limits, and source-specific air-quality evidence.

How to Use NOAA Sea-Level Projections for a Home Search

A scenario-aware guide to coastal projections without converting regional model output into a precise ZIP forecast.

How to Use Pipeline Safety Records Near a Property

What federal pipeline incidents and system maps can show, including security and location limits.

How to Use USGS Groundwater Monitoring Data

A guide to wells, measurements, sampling dates, and the difference between a monitoring site and a household well.

State of Home Safety 2026: Current Scoring Method

The corrected 2026 methodology for ZipCheckup Home Safety Scores, with old national totals and rankings withdrawn.

Using County Health Data Without Inventing a ZIP Score

A practical guide to county health indicators, geographic limits, and the difference between a public-health measure and...

Waukesha Water: How to Separate History From Current Conditions

A source-aware case-study framework for a major water-supply transition without making unsupported current-safety claims...

What State Energy Codes Can and Cannot Say About a Home

How to use state energy-code and housing evidence without promising a universal annual savings amount.

Why Missing Enforcement Data Is Not Proof of No Enforcement

A corrected guide to contamination and enforcement records that keeps unknown states explicit.

Why Neighboring ZIP Codes Can Show Different Safety Evidence

A guide to utility boundaries, monitor coverage, and why a local contrast is not automatically an island-of-safety findi...