What is an NSPIRE score?

NSPIRE — the National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate — is how HUD has scored the physical condition of the housing it subsidizes since 2023. Every inspected property gets a number from 0 to 100.

How to read the number

• Below 60 is failing. HUD refers the property for enforcement, and the owner must survey and fix the deficiencies.
• 60 to 79 passes, but puts the property on a more frequent inspection cycle.
• 80 and above passes with the standard inspection cycle (up to three years between inspections).

The score is built by subtracting points for defects inspectors find — in units, in common areas, and outside — weighted by how much each defect affects residents' health and safety. A unit-level defect (no heat, exposed wiring, inoperable smoke alarm) costs far more under NSPIRE than it did under the old system.

NSPIRE replaced REAC's UPCS score in 2023

From 2000 to 2023, HUD's Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) scored properties under a different standard, UPCS. Those scores look similar — also 0 to 100 — but they carried a letter and sometimes a star: 86c* meant a score of 86, deficiency profile "c", with at least one health or safety deficiency. NSPIRE scores are bare numbers.

The two eras are not directly comparable. NSPIRE weights in-unit conditions much more heavily, so many properties score lower under NSPIRE than they did under REAC without having physically changed. On this site, every score is labeled with the standard it was issued under. Public housing switched to NSPIRE on July 1, 2023; HUD-assisted multifamily followed on October 1, 2023.

What a score does not tell you

• Inspections can be years apart. A passing score from 2024 says nothing about a pipe that burst last month.
• The score averages the whole property. A building can pass while individual units have serious problems.
• Only HUD-assisted properties are inspected. A market-rate building has no NSPIRE score at all.

Look up a property

Every property HUD has published a score for is on this site — search it by name from the home page, or browse by state or by housing authority. Scores come straight from HUD's published files and are free.