Expanded Query Engine and AVM Improvements

Our latest API release added a more robust query engine and new property and listing search capabilities, introduced automatic subject property attribute lookup for AVM endpoints, and added many other improvements and features.

Check out the highlights below:

General Improvements

• We've added the stateFips and countyFips fields to all API responses that return a property address, representing the FIPS codes assigned to each state and county
• We've improved our property address parser and made it more tolerant to malformed addresses, city and zip code mismatches, and other formatting inconsistencies
• We've improved the consistency and format of county and county-equivalent names throughout our database
• All API endpoints now support a new suppressLogging boolean query parameter. If provided with a "true" value, it will prevent internal logging of your API queries and query parameters, to address data security or compliance requirements
• We've improved the speed and performance of many API endpoints, specifically those that support complex queries and pagination

Property Records (/properties)

• The propertyType query parameter now supports multiple values, separated by the pipe character "|" (ex. "Single Family|Condo|Townhouse")
• The bedrooms and bathrooms query parameters now support multiple values, separated by the pipe character "|" (ex. "1|3"). They also now support a min-max value range, separated by the colon character ":" (ex. "1:3")
• We've added 3 additional query parameters that support multiple values (separated by the pipe character "|") and min-max value ranges (separated by the colon character ":"):
  • squareFootage: this query parameter can be used to search and filter properties by their indoor living area size
  • lotSize: this query parameter can be used to search and filter properties by their lot size
  • yearBuilt: this query parameter can be used to search and filter properties by the year they were built

• The saleDateRange query parameter now accepts a min-max value range, separated by the colon character ":" (ex. "180:270"). The existing behavior of this parameter is unchanged - if a single value is provided, it is treated as the maximum range value
• It is now possible to retrieve the total number of property records matching a specific query by using the new includeTotalCount boolean query parameter, with a "true" value. The total record count will be returned in the X-Total-Count header of the response. Please note that this may significantly increase the response time of this endpoint, and it is recommended to use this sparingly
• Responses from this endpoint will now return the X-Limit and X-Offset headers, which represent the values of the limit and offset query parameters that were used when performing bulk search queries
• We've improved the consistency and format of property features and characteristics returned in the features response field

Random Property Records (/properties/random)

• Responses from this endpoint will now return the X-Limit header, which represents the value of the limit query parameter that was used when performing the search query
• We've significantly improved the speed and performance of this endpoint to bring it up to par with our other API endpoints

Property Valuation (/avm/value, /avm/rent/long-term)

• We've added a new lookupSubjectAttributes boolean query parameter to our AVM endpoints. When provided with a "true" value, it will enable automatic lookup of subject property attributes (property type, bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage) before calculating and returning the estimated property value or rent:
  • This query parameter defaults to "true", meaning our API will now automatically look up subject property attributes for you. This should increase the AVM accuracy for the majority of use cases, so we recommend leaving this parameter enabled
  • You can still provide your own subject property attributes via the propertyType, bedrooms, bathrooms, and squareFootage query parameters. If provided, these values will override any subject property attributes that are looked up automatically
  • In rare cases, you may wish to turn off this behavior by providing the lookupSubjectAttributes query parameter with a "false" value. This will preserve the legacy behavior of our AVM endpoints before this change

• Responses from the AVM endpoints will now return a new subjectProperty field, which will include the address, coordinates, attributes, and other information pertaining to the subject property location
• The top-level latitude and longitude fields are now considered deprecated and will be removed in a future API update. We encourage you to update your code to use the newsubjectProperty.latitude and subjectProperty.longitude fields instead
• Comparable listing records will now return the listing status field. See explanation of listing statuses for possible values

Property Listings (/listings/sale, /listings/rental/long-term)

• The propertyType query parameter now supports multiple values, separated by the pipe character "|" (ex. "Single Family|Condo|Townhouse")
• The bedrooms and bathrooms query parameters now support multiple values, separated by the pipe character "|" (ex. "1|3"). They also now support a min-max value range, separated by the colon character ":" (ex. "1:3")
• We've added 4 additional query parameters that support multiple values (separated by the pipe character "|") and min-max value ranges (separated by the colon character ":"):
  • price: this query parameter can be used to search and filter listings by their listed price or rent
  • squareFootage: this query parameter can be used to search and filter listings by their indoor living area size
  • lotSize: this query parameter can be used to search and filter listings by their lot size
  • yearBuilt: this query parameter can be used to search and filter listings by the year they were built

• The daysOld query parameter now accepts a min-max value range, separated by the colon character ":" (ex. "30:60"). The existing behavior of this parameter is unchanged - if a single value is provided, it is treated as the maximum range value
• It is now possible to retrieve the total number of listing records matching a specific query by using the new includeTotalCount boolean query parameter, with a "true" value. The total record count will be returned in the X-Total-Count header of the response. Please note that this may significantly increase the response times of these endpoints, and it is recommended to use this sparingly
• Responses from these endpoints will now return the X-Limit and X-Offset headers, which represent the values of the limit and offset query parameters that were used when performing bulk search queries
• We've improved rental listing coverage for large apartment complexes and multi-family buildings in many markets

Integrations & Support Resources

• All API guides and endpoint reference pages now include an Ask AI dropdown at the top right, which you can use to quickly share our API documentation with AI assistants and agents
• We now publish a special LLM markdown file for each API documentation page to help AI assistants and agents better understand and work with our documentation. See an example here
• We have created a RentCast API MCP server, available at https://developers.rentcast.io/mcp, to assist with connecting our API and data directly to AI tools, applications, and agents

Our API documentation has been updated to reflect the above changes, and you can view it at any time to review our data sets and API endpoints in more detail.

If you have any questions about this update, or have additional feature requests or suggestions, contact us by launching the live chat at the bottom right of this website, or by sending an email to [email protected].

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Getting Started

To get started using our property data API, create a RentCast account to access your API dashboard and generate your first API key. Read this guide for an in-depth walkthrough.