How to scrape Trulia and HouseSigma for real estate comps

Key Takeaways

Why scrape Trulia instead of going straight to Zillow? Trulia's listing data includes a zpid field — Zillow's own property ID — directly in the output, since Trulia and Zillow are both owned by Zillow Group and share the same underlying listing data. That means a Trulia scrape gets you Zillow's own identifier for free, useful for cross-referencing without a separate Zillow lookup.

Does HouseSigma cover the same US markets as Trulia? No — HouseSigma is Canada-only, covering Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta specifically. It's the complementary source for Canadian comps, not an alternative to Trulia for US markets.

What's the difference between HouseSigma's "feeds" and a normal property search? HouseSigma structures data around curated feeds — Newly Listed, Just Sold, Best for Schools, High Growth — rather than an open keyword search. You point the scraper at a feed URL and a province, not a search query.

Two Markets, Two Data Shapes

	Trulia	HouseSigma
Coverage	United States	Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta
Input	Search URL or location + buy/rent	Feed URL (newly-listed, just-sold, etc.)
Cross-reference ID	zpid (Zillow property ID)	mlsNumber (when public)

Trulia: US Listings With a Zillow Cross-Reference Built In

The Trulia Property Scraper walks Trulia's search results for a state, city, or a pasted search URL:

{
  "price": "$559,000",
  "priceValue": 559000,
  "listing_status": "Active for sale",
  "property_type": "SINGLE_FAMILY_HOME",
  "beds": 3,
  "baths": 2,
  "sqft": 1450,
  "city": "San Leandro",
  "state": "CA",
  "latitude": 37.6851,
  "longitude": -122.156,
  "zpid": "12345678",
  "tags": ["NEW", "OPEN SAT"]
}

listing_type set to "buy" or "rent" — a single toggle covers both for-sale and rental comps from the same actor. feature_highlights and tags surface Trulia's own callouts (FORECLOSURE, OPEN SAT, NEW) directly in the data, which is faster than re-deriving distress signals from price history alone. zpid is worth keeping even if you never call Zillow directly — it's a stable cross-platform key if you ever need to reconcile a Trulia dataset against a Zillow-sourced one later.

HouseSigma: Canadian Feeds, Province by Province

The HouseSigma Scraper reads the province and feed straight from the URL path you give it — housesigma.com/on/listings/newly-listed/ for Ontario's newest listings, for example:

{
  "address": "42 Example St, Toronto, ON",
  "price": "$899,000",
  "priceValue": 899000,
  "bedrooms": "3+1",
  "bathrooms": "2",
  "propertyType": "Detached",
  "propertyStyle": "2-Storey",
  "municipality": "Toronto",
  "daysOnMarket": 4,
  "mlsNumber": "C1234567"
}

Supported feeds go beyond plain search: newly-listed, just-sold, sold-below-bought (homes that sold for less than the owner originally paid — a distress signal Trulia's tags don't have an equivalent for), best-for-schools, and high-growth. Scheduling the newly-listed feed daily catches every new listing in a province the day it posts, which matters in fast-moving Canadian markets where a good comp can be gone within days.

Building a Cross-Border Comp Set

async function getComps(usCity, canProvince) {
  const [usListings, canListings] = await Promise.all([
    runActor("trulia-property-scraper", { location: usCity, listing_type: "buy", results_wanted: 50 }),
    runActor("housesigma-scraper", { startUrl: `https://housesigma.com/${canProvince}/listings/newly-listed/`, results_wanted: 50 }),
  ]);

  return {
    usMedianPrice: median(usListings.map((l) => l.priceValue)),
    canMedianPrice: median(canListings.map((l) => l.priceValue)),
  };
}

Useful for anyone benchmarking a cross-border portfolio, or a relocation service comparing cost of living between, say, Buffalo and nearby Ontario markets across the border.

FAQ

Do either of these require an MLS login or real estate license? No — both read publicly listed data from Trulia's and HouseSigma's own consumer-facing pages, no login or license required.

Can you get sold (closed) prices, not just active listings, from either? Yes for HouseSigma directly via its just-sold and sold-below-bought feeds. Trulia's listing_status field distinguishes active from other statuses when present, but its main strength is active inventory rather than a dedicated sold-comps feed.

For US distressed-property and skip-tracing data specifically, see Finding Distressed Property Leads Before They Hit the MLS and How to Find Skip Tracing Data for Real Estate Wholesaling.