Method and evidence · updated 2026-10-31

You should be able to check the answer.

Confident-sounding is easy. Explainable is better. Our matches compare broad search areas using your priorities, measured route snapshots, Census housing estimates, and EPA built-environment data. The goal is to give you a useful place to begin—not pretend one data point knows every home in an area.

What changes the result?

• Commute preferences use measured no-traffic routes from one documented representative point in each area. The targets are 20 minutes for “shorter is better,” 30 minutes for a balanced drive, and 45 minutes for a flexible drive.
• A strict commute preference sets aside an area when its representative route exceeds 35 minutes for either selected duty station. A second regular worksite receives equal weight.
• Lifestyle answers create positive, negative, or neutral signals for outdoor room, newer housing, convenience, established character, walkability, rural setting, and master-planned communities.
• Housing and built-environment inputs are normalized within this market to a 1–5 comparison scale. The 10th and 90th percentiles limit the effect of extreme values; 3 is market-neutral.
• Related answers may intentionally reinforce one another when you consistently choose the same priority. A compromise answer reduces that preference instead of erasing it.
• The highest score is the primary match. Only an exact score tie becomes a shortlist; a small lead is shown as a close call with the runner-up.

How the lifestyle inputs are built

• More outdoor room: detached-home share plus inverse residential density.
• Newer homes: share of housing units built in 2000 or later.
• Established character: share of housing units built before 1980.
• Everyday convenience: retail/service employment density plus land-use mix.
• Walkability: EPA National Walkability Index.
• Rural setting: inverse residential density.
• Planned community: whether the named comparison area is itself a documented master-planned community.

Census housing measures use the tract containing each area’s representative point. EPA measures use the corresponding block-group evidence described in each market package. That geography is intentionally broader than an address and may contain more than one housing pattern.

The measured route snapshots

These are fastest modeled driving routes without traffic. They are inputs to the comparison—not commute promises.

Fort Carson, Peterson SFB, and Schriever SFB

Snapshot: 2026-10-08

Fort Bragg

Snapshot: 2026-10-29

Fort Campbell

Snapshot: 2026-10-31

Fort Hood

Snapshot: 2026-10-29

Joint Base Andrews / National Capital Region

Snapshot: 2026-10-31

Joint Base Langley-Eustis / Virginia Peninsula

Snapshot: 2026-10-31

Joint Base Lewis-McChord

Snapshot: 2026-10-12

Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst / Central New Jersey

Snapshot: 2026-10-31

Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam / Oahu

Snapshot: 2026-10-31

Joint Base San Antonio

Snapshot: 2026-10-30

How rent, buy, and HOA answers are used

Rent versus buy and HOA preferences appear with the result and change the guidance you receive. They do not alter the geographic ranking. Current rental inventory, homes for sale, prices, HOA rules, and fees change too quickly—and vary too much by property—to be treated as stable facts about where your everyday life fits.

Sources and limits

• Open Source Routing Machine API

  Reproducible fastest-route duration and distance snapshots; no live traffic, closures, gate delay, or on-post travel.

• OpenStreetMap contributors

  Road-network data used by the routing service and representative-point research.

• U.S. Census Bureau: 2024 ACS five-year table-based summary files

  Tract-level housing structure and year-built estimates. ACS estimates have sampling error and are not current listings.

• U.S. Census Bureau TIGERweb

  Point-to-census-geography crosswalks for the representative locations.

• U.S. EPA Smart Location Database version 3.0

  Block-group density, land-use mix, street connectivity, and walkability measures.

• City of Colorado Springs: Banning Lewis Ranch planning

  Documents Banning Lewis Ranch as a master-planned area; used only for the planned-community classification.

• Meridian Service Metropolitan District: About us

  Documents Meridian Ranch as a master-planned community; used only for the Falcon / Meridian Ranch planned-community classification.

• City of Colorado Springs: neighborhood typologies

  Historic Westside/Old Colorado City context and distinctions among established, emerging and future neighborhoods; not a property-level walkability assessment.

• El Paso County planning and development

  Property-level planning, zoning and development research tools; not validation of rural-area scores.

• U.S. Census Bureau TIGERweb

  Point-to-2020 Census tract geography crosswalks.

• U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2019–2023 five-year estimates via Esri Living Atlas

  Tract-level housing structure and year-built estimates derived from Census ACS tables.

• U.S. Army Fort Bragg — access and road updates

  Current installation name, current All American access-point closure, and official alternate-gate context.

• MilitaryINSTALLATIONS — Fort Bragg overview and housing

  Official relocation context for Fayetteville and the surrounding Cumberland, Harnett, Moore, and Hoke County communities.

• U.S. Army Fort Campbell — visitor and gate information

  Current official gate and visitor-access context.

• MilitaryINSTALLATIONS — Fort Campbell overview and housing

  Official relocation context for Clarksville, Oak Grove, Hopkinsville, and surrounding Tennessee and Kentucky counties.

• U.S. Army Fort Hood — surrounding communities and access

  Current installation name, surrounding-community set, and official access context.

• MilitaryINSTALLATIONS — Fort Hood housing

  Official military relocation context for common close-in and farther-out off-post housing communities.

• MilitaryINSTALLATIONS — Joint Base Andrews overview

  Official Prince George’s County, surrounding-community, transit, and installation context.

• MilitaryINSTALLATIONS — JBLE housing

  Official Peninsula, Langley, Fort Eustis, and surrounding-community context.

• U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder

  Point-to-census-geography crosswalks for representative locations.

• My JBLM Match by Aubrey Davenport

  Original locally informed area set, consumer language, and tradeoff framing used as editorial source material.

• MilitaryINSTALLATIONS — JBMDL housing

  Official separate McGuire-Dix and Lakehurst housing and surrounding-community context.

• MilitaryINSTALLATIONS — JBPHH housing and overview

  Official Oahu housing, check-in, and installation context.

• Joint Base San Antonio — gate hours and visitor information

  Official gate, visitor-center, construction, and access context for JBSA-Fort Sam Houston, JBSA-Lackland, and JBSA-Randolph.

• MilitaryINSTALLATIONS — Joint Base San Antonio overview

  Official relocation and mission context for JBSA and its three primary operating locations.

ACS figures are estimates and include sampling error. Route data does not include live traffic or on-base delay. Area-level indicators cannot establish the facts of a specific property. Before acting, check the actual address, route at the expected time, current inventory, total monthly cost, utilities, boundaries, HOA documents, and any other material detail.

Privacy and result delivery

The quiz and personalized result are free. There is no paywall. Quiz answers stay in memory in this browser tab until you restart or reload. Before results appear, the form sends your name, email, optional phone number, selected duty station(s), rent-or-buy preference, and quiz result to Julie and Aubrey. Your complete result appears on screen after the submission succeeds. The system also attempts to email a copy and tells you on screen whether that delivery succeeded. Contact details and individual quiz answers are not sent to analytics. Read the full Privacy Notice.

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