About Real Record

The civic data archive of a Washington nonprofit.

Real Record is operated by Real Housing Reform Initiative, a Washington State 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We publish the records, dashboards, and meeting transcripts that let Washington residents see how local-government housing decisions actually get made — the meetings, the budgets, the tax bills, and the land-use rulings that shape who can afford to live where.

Mission

Most housing-policy decisions in Washington happen in council chambers, hearing rooms, and budget meetings that are technically open — but practically invisible. The transcripts are buried. The dashboards are gated. The data that justifies a rezone or a levy is summarized away before the public sees it.

Real Housing Reform Initiative exists to close that gap. We publish the underlying data and the meeting record in formats the public can actually read, search, and cite — for free, with sources attached, with no paywall and no membership requirement.

We do this because the people most affected by housing policy — renters, first-time buyers, fixed-income owners, working families priced out of the cities they grew up in — are systematically the people with the least time and access to follow a city council agenda. The data exists. The meetings happen. The decisions get made. Our job is to make sure none of that requires a lobbyist or a lawyer to read.

Why two sites

Real Housing Reform Initiative operates two complementary properties. They serve different audiences and different jobs.

How we work

Sources, not summaries.

Every dashboard, every briefing, every property-tax record on Real Record traces back to a primary source — Census ACS, HUD, OSPI, county assessors, city budget books, council meeting recordings, state legislative databases. Where we cite a number, you can click through to the underlying record.

Free and unpaywalled.

Real Record has no paywall, no metering, no required signup. You can read every briefing, search every parcel, and download every dataset without giving us your email. Optional membership at realhousingreform.org/membership exists for people who want briefing emails — it costs nothing and never will.

Methodology, in the open.

Our calculation methods, our data refresh cadence, and the limitations of each dataset are documented on the methodology page. When we make a judgment call about how to compute affordability or how to count a levy, we say so.

Errors get corrected.

If you find a wrong number, a stale dataset, a broken link, or a misattributed source, please tell us at brian@realhousingreform.org or via the feedback form. We correct it and we note the correction.

Funding and independence

Real Housing Reform Initiative is funded by individual contributions and grants. We accept no corporate sponsorships from real-estate, lending, or construction companies, and we publish no sponsored content. Our reporting and dashboards are not influenced by any party with a financial interest in the policies we cover.

If you'd like to support the work, every dollar is deductible to the extent allowed by law — EIN 39-4829821. Donate via realhousingreform.org →

What's here on Real Record

• Meeting briefings — council and committee meetings from Bellingham, Whatcom County, and other Washington jurisdictions, transcribed and structured with topic tags, decisions, and quotes.
• Property-tax search — look up any Washington parcel and see 25 years of tax history broken down by levy.
• County affordability dashboards — cost burden, rent growth, school enrollment, transportation cost, and energy burden for every Washington county.
• Government funds tracker — how local governments actually move money between funds, with the supporting budget records.
• City land-use profiles — comprehensive plan adoption dates, zoning summaries, and the land-use record for each Washington city.
• Washington State legislation tracker — housing-relevant bills and where they are in the process.
• Investigations — original reporting on specific decisions where the data and the public record don't match.