Traditional US rental housing data sources such as the American Community Survey and the American Housing Survey report on the transacted market — what existing renters pay each month. They do not explicitly tell us about the spot market — i.e., the asking rents that current homeseekers must...

Regional scientists and geographers have long tried to uncover the keys to regional success through comparative studies. From Chinitz’s (1961) comparison of Pittsburgh and New York to Saxenian’s (1994) pairing of Silicon Valley and Route 128, these studies have generally adopted an...