Where the data comes from and how fresh it is
Everything in Acresift comes from public records. Nothing is bought from a data broker and nothing is typed in by hand. That keeps the data honest about its source, and it means Acresift is only as current as the county or agency that publishes it.
Parcels, owners and values: the counties
Each county’s tax office and GIS office publish the parcel map (the outlines) and the tax records (owner, mailing address, tax value, land use, sometimes sales). In North Carolina, the state’s NC OneMap service also collects every county’s parcels into one statewide layer, refreshed as counties send updates.
- How often Acresift reads them: every night, a job checks each source for changes and reloads the counties that changed.
- How fresh they are: as fresh as the county’s last export. Most counties update monthly or quarterly; a few update weekly; some only once a year.
- Tax values change on the county’s reappraisal schedule, which in North Carolina is at least every eight years and often every four. A tax value can be well behind the market.
- Sales come from the county’s deed records where it publishes them. Not every county does, so sales are added county by county.
Site data: state and federal agencies
| Data | Publisher | How often it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Flood zones | FEMA | When a flood map is revised, county by county, every few years |
| Wetlands | US Fish and Wildlife Service | Slowly; many areas mapped decades ago |
| Streams, ponds, lakes | USGS | Every few years |
| Elevation and slope | USGS 3D Elevation Program | Rarely; lidar flights every several years |
| Roads (for frontage) | NC 911 Board via NC OneMap | Monthly |
| Stormwater programs | NC Department of Environmental Quality | Rarely |
| Town limits | NC Department of Transportation | As towns annex land |
| Zoning | Each county or town | When they update their zoning map |
Site measurements (buildable acres, flood share, frontage) are worked out from these once per county, then again when a source changes. The parcel card shows the date each was measured.
The layer reference lists every map layer and its source.
Map layers are live
Map layers (flood zones, wetlands, soils, zoning and the rest) are drawn straight from the publisher’s own server when you turn them on. You always see their current version. If one of those servers is down, that layer shows a warning and everything else keeps working.
When the data looks wrong
- Check the date on the parcel card. If the county’s export is old, a recent sale or split may not be there yet.
- Open the county’s tax card from the parcel card. That’s the county’s own current record.
- Tell us. Every parcel card has Report a problem. We’ll check the source and fix the reader if the mistake is ours.
Words used on this page
- Tax value
- The county's assessed value, used to set property tax. It is set on the county's schedule, often years apart, and is not what the land would sell for.
- Sale price
- What was paid at the last recorded sale, from the deed. Sales under $1,000 (gifts, family transfers, corrections) are not treated as market sales.
- Parcel
- One piece of land as the county's tax map draws it, with its own parcel number. A deed can cover several parcels and a parcel can have several owners.