QuietMap
Will you sleep there? Noise on home listings
QuietMap is a Chrome extension for house and apartment hunting. On a Zillow, Redfin or Realtor.com listing it shows a quiet score from 0 to 100 and what costs points: road, airport and rail noise, train horns at night, bars nearby and stadiums. The lookup runs on your computer; the listing you're viewing is never sent anywhere.
QuietMap is waiting for Chrome Web Store review, so it can't be installed from the store yet. This page will link to it once it's approved.
What it shows
Open a home on Zillow, Redfin or Realtor.com and a small tab appears on the right edge of the page with the score and a word for it. Click it for the details. Drag the tab up or down if it covers something; it stays where you put it.
| Layer | What you see | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Road, airport and rail noise | The noise band at the home, in decibels averaged over 24 hours, for each of the three (the paid report gives the exact modeled level) | US DOT National Transportation Noise Map (2022 release; road traffic from 2023) |
| Train horns | Rail crossings within 1 km where trains must sound their horns (no quiet zone), the nearest one's distance, and how many trains pass at night | Federal Railroad Administration crossing inventory |
| Nightlife | Bars and clubs within 150 m and 400 m | OpenStreetMap |
| Stadiums | A stadium within 1 km (event nights) | OpenStreetMap |
| Reported crime (separate) | Violent and property offenses within 400 m over the last 12 months, compared with the rest of the city | Police and sheriff open data, 73 cities and counties |
The quiet score
The score starts at 100. Road, airport and rail noise are combined into one 24-hour level: 45 dB or less costs nothing, and 70 dB or more costs every point. Horn crossings cost up to 40 points (more when closer and with more night trains), bars up to 35, and a stadium 10. The labels are Quiet (80 and up), Mostly quiet (60 to 79), Some noise (40 to 59) and Loud (under 40). The details list what cost the most points first.
Crime, kept separate
Crime is never part of the quiet score. It sits in its own section, closed until you open it, and only for cities whose police publish where incidents happened: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Fort Worth, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Memphis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New York City, Oakland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, Raleigh, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa, Tucson and Washington, DC. Elsewhere the section says there is no open data for that city.
Counts are per area, not per resident, so busy commercial blocks read higher than where people sleep. Drug, public-disorder and "other" offenses are left out because they track policing more than risk.
Where it works
- Single listing pages on Zillow, Redfin and Realtor.com, for homes and apartments. Search and map pages show nothing until you open a home, and listings that hide their location show nothing; when a site opens a home in place, the panel follows it.
- US towns and cities in the lower 48 states: every Census urban area and incorporated place. Homes in open country or on the water show Not covered yet.
The full address report
For a home you're serious about, the panel links to the full report for that address on quietmap.whitehatharbor.com: a one-page summary (a plain verdict for sleep, what you'll hear, the best bedroom side and the three things to ask), the night hour by hour, each noise source explained with what it sounds like indoors, a map of the blocks around it with the quietest spot within 500 m, how it ranks in its city, reported crime nearby (included, and still not part of the score), and questions for the landlord or seller. Before paying you can check the pin on a street map and move it to the right building. It prints or saves as a PDF. With a day pass or the hunt pass you can put up to five addresses side by side. See a sample report.
| Option | Price | What it opens |
|---|---|---|
| This address | $2.99 one-time | The full report for one address, with a permanent link |
| Day pass | $4.99 one-time | The full report for every covered address, and the full map, for 24 hours: the pick for comparing listings on a tour day |
| Hunt pass | $9.99 a month, cancel any time | The full report for every covered address, and the full map, while the subscription is active |
A pass comes with a key, shown after checkout and in Polar's receipt email. Enter it once on the report page or the map and that browser opens every address's full report, and the map, directly. Cancel the hunt pass any time in Polar's customer portal; it keeps working to the end of the month you paid for.
Polar runs the checkout as the merchant of record and handles sales tax. The extension itself is free and has no paid features. The terms of sale and refund policy cover the report and both passes.
The full map
Both passes also open the full map, Map (Pro) ⭐: every block in US towns and cities colored by quiet score, or by road, aircraft or rail noise, train horns or nightlife, with the same details as the extension for any block you click. It's handy for ruling out a neighborhood before you open its listings. Without a pass the page shows a still preview of one city.
Permissions
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
Read and change your data on www.zillow.com, www.redfin.com and www.realtor.com | Read the listing's location and street address from the page and show the tab and drawer on it. It reads nothing else and never changes the listing. |
storage | Remember where you dragged the tab, on your computer. |
It has no access to any other website. It downloads the published noise data files from quietmap.whitehatharbor.com and loads no code from the internet.
Limits
- Noise is a model of traffic, aircraft and trains averaged over 24 hours, not a measurement at the door. It doesn't know about walls, windows, construction, neighbours or dogs.
- Railroads report their own train counts, and some crossings have none; those still cost points for distance, and the details say "not reported".
- Bars come from OpenStreetMap, which is thorough in most cities but can miss a new place.
- The details show the date the data was built.