How Your Home Cost handles data

Scope and operator

This policy applies to Your Home Cost at yourhomecost.com. In this policy, “Your Home Cost,” “we,” and “our” refer to Kevin Song, the publisher identified on the About and editorial standards page. It does not govern the separate websites of government agencies, lenders, data publishers, or other sources that we link to.

Information handled when you use the site

Calculator and export information

The home price, down payment, loan type, interest rate, loan term, property-tax rate, insurance amount, HOA dues, mortgage-insurance rate, utilities, maintenance, other costs, and income amounts you enter are used by code running in your browser to produce an estimate. During ordinary calculator use, Your Home Cost does not intentionally transmit those financial entries to our server or maintain an account record containing them.

Printing, saving a PDF through your browser, and downloading a CSV are initiated on your device. Files you choose to save are then controlled by you and by the device, browser, storage provider, or person with whom you share them.

Location and benchmark requests

When you select a location, the site sends the selected state code and, when applicable, a Census place identifier to our server so it can retrieve relevant public benchmarks. The site does not request your device’s precise GPS location. Location-based responses may be cached temporarily for performance and are not intended to identify a person.

Technical, analytics, and advertising information

When your browser connects to the site, our hosting infrastructure and Google services may automatically receive information such as your IP address, browser and device type, operating system, language, referring page, pages viewed, approximate location derived from an IP address, timestamps, interactions, cookie information, and advertising or measurement identifiers. This information is generated by normal web requests and by the services described below.

How information is used

Information described in this policy may be used to:

• Deliver the calculator, requested location benchmarks, and downloadable results.
• Operate, secure, troubleshoot, and improve the site.
• Understand aggregate usage and how visitors navigate the site.
• Measure advertising and site performance.
• Display personalized or non-personalized advertising when permitted by applicable choices and settings.
• Detect spam, fraud, abuse, security incidents, and invalid advertising activity.
• Comply with legal obligations and enforce applicable terms.

Google Analytics, AdSense, cookies, and identifiers

Your Home Cost uses Google Analytics measurement ID G-1QB0S53BXQ to understand site usage and Google AdSense publisher ID pub-5667774612283061 for advertising services. Google and other third parties may place and read cookies in your browser or use web beacons and similar technologies to collect information as a result of ad serving, analytics, measurement, fraud prevention, and related operations.

Depending on your region, consent choices, Google settings, and the availability of ads, Google may use information about visits to this and other sites to provide personalized or non-personalized ads, measure performance, limit repeated ads, and protect its services. Learn more about how Google uses data from sites and apps that use its services and Google's Business Data Responsibility information, and review the Google Privacy Policy.

When advertising is served, third-party vendors, including Google, may use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to Your Home Cost or other websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables Google and its partners to serve ads based on visits to this site and other sites on the internet. You can opt out of personalized Google advertising through the Google Ads Settings.

Unless third-party ad serving has been disabled in the applicable AdSense settings, cookies from other ad technology providers and ad networks may also be used. The providers eligible to participate can vary by region, available inventory, consent choices, and account settings. Review Google’s current ad technology provider information and the linked provider websites for their practices and opt-outs. You can also learn about opt-outs offered by participating companies at YourAdChoices.

Cookies are small text files stored by a browser. Some cookies and identifiers are necessary to deliver or protect a service; others support analytics, advertising, personalization, or measurement. Blocking or deleting them may change how the site or Google services behave.

Consent messages and regional choices

Where required, a Google-managed consent message is configured to appear so that you can accept, reject, or manage available advertising and data-processing choices. The choices offered can vary by region and by the legal basis used for a particular service. You can revisit available privacy choices through the message when it is shown and through the Google and browser controls listed below.

When information may be shared

Information may be processed or shared with:

• Google, for Analytics, AdSense, advertising, measurement, consent, security, and related services.
• Hosting and infrastructure providers, including the services used to deliver, cache, monitor, and protect the website.
• Public-data providers, when our server requests the benchmark associated with a selected state or Census place. These requests do not need your calculator’s financial inputs.
• Authorities or other parties, when reasonably necessary to comply with law, protect rights or safety, investigate abuse, or maintain the security and integrity of the site.

Your Home Cost does not intentionally upload or sell the financial calculator entries described above. Google and other service providers process the technical, analytics, and advertising information they receive under their own terms and privacy policies.

Storage and retention

Your Home Cost does not provide user accounts or intentionally maintain a server-side history of calculator entries. Location benchmark responses may be cached temporarily without being tied to a named user. Hosting, security, Analytics, and AdSense providers may retain logs, cookies, identifiers, and measurement data according to their configurations, legal obligations, and retention policies.

A file you export remains wherever you choose to save or share it until you or the relevant storage provider deletes it.

Your privacy choices

• Manage ad personalization through Google Ads Settings.
• Install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on where it is supported.
• Use the consent message when it appears to manage the choices it offers.
• Use your browser or device settings to block, limit, or delete cookies and site data. Doing so can affect site functionality.
• Avoid entering optional calculator information, clear an entry, restart the estimate, or close the page. Calculator entries are not associated with a Your Home Cost account.
• Delete any PDF or CSV you created from the device or storage service where you saved it.

Security and international processing

We use HTTPS and rely on hosting and service providers to help deliver and protect the site. No internet service is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee that information will never be accessed, altered, or lost. Google and infrastructure providers may process information in countries other than the one where you live, subject to their safeguards and applicable law.

Children’s privacy

Your Home Cost is a general financial-planning tool intended for people considering homeownership. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly ask children to create accounts or submit personal financial information.

Privacy questions

Use the contact page to ask about this policy, calculator entries, Analytics, AdSense, cookies, or regional consent choices. Do not include identity documents, account numbers, credit reports, tax records, or other sensitive financial information in a message.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when the site, its service providers, or legal requirements change. The effective and last-updated date at the top will identify the current version. Material changes will be reflected on this page before a later version replaces it.