Dallas Morning News editorial writer Tod Robberson complains that the neighborhood boundaries employed by North Texas Real Estate Information Systems are the “wackiest thing I’ve seen in a long time,” and wishes that NTREIS would use “labels and boundaries that reflect reality, not fantasy.”
While most people think of South Dallas being about half of the city, NTREIS has defined it as “a narrow strip of territory” along Interstate 20, Robberson laments.
“Whatever the rationale, the map appears to lump together disparate neighborhoods in ways that could give a badly distorted picture of actual real estate value fluctuations,” he concludes. “A dramatic increase in property values in, say, Lakewood, in no way should be associated with property values in South Dallas.”
A spokeswoman for NTREIS — which provides MLS services to 15 Realtor associations in a 48,000-square-mile area of North Texas including the Dallas-Fort Worth region — provided the following response to a request for comment from Inman News:
“NTREIS, like all MLS systems, provides a variety of geographic search tools for MLS subscribers; area numbers and labels are just one of many resources available to a real estate licensee and were generated to easily narrow down a search within the 48,000 square miles of our service area. These areas are updated as requested by the shareholder Realtor associations we serve. For statistical purposes, professionals are able to analyze the information by school districts, ZIP codes and any number of other parameters. The particular map referenced in Mr. Robberson’s blog post is one used by his own employer, the Dallas Morning News — this map is not provided by the North Texas Real Estate Information Systems. The Dallas Morning News provides this information for general reference to inform the public; a consumer who requires more detailed information should always consult a Realtor professional who can provide a more customized analysis.”
Source: dallasnews.com.
