Data Fragmentation Across Thousands of Jurisdictions Creates Real Estate Market Inefficiencies

Written by:

Rudi Davis

Date:

11 Feb 2026

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Real estate development in the United States is shaped not by federal policy but by thousands of local decisions across the country. Daniel Heller, CEO and co-founder of ReZone (recently acquired by Shovels AI), argues that this fragmentation leads to a core market inefficiency: information that is technically public often remains functionally out of reach for most participants.

“Public information isn’t necessarily public,” Heller explains. She draws this conclusion from her experience building a company that tracked city council and planning department meetings nationwide. The problem, she says, isn’t secrecy but the sheer complexity of gathering data from thousands of different sources, which creates persistent information gaps in real estate.

The Scale of the Fragmentation Problem

The challenge is not the absence of data on zoning, permits, or planning actions, but the difficulty of accessing it across countless systems and formats. Heller notes that anyone seeking permitting or city council information must often spend hours searching, navigating inconsistent processes and websites. “You can find it, but it’s going to be quite difficult to do so,” she says.

ReZone addressed this by monitoring every city council and planning meeting, then generating summaries and alerts for commercial real estate decisions. The company created notifications whenever a zoning change, development initiative, or permit approval occurred, analyzing the decision and providing targeted updates to clients focused on specific cities or markets.

ReZone’s recent acquisition by Shovels AI is based on the idea that bringing together different fragmented datasets produces insights that no single source can provide. “Washington doesn’t govern real estate, but by thousands of small decisions in our local jurisdictions,” Heller says. By connecting broad policy changes with the specific permits and actions that follow, a clearer, more accurate picture of local development emerges.

When Policy Changes Don’t Produce Results

Fragmentation also makes it difficult to measure whether policy changes are effective. Heller points to Madison, Wisconsin, where the city allowed increased building heights for student housing if affordable units were included. Despite the policy’s promise, few developers took advantage of it.

Understanding why a well-intentioned policy failed requires connecting the policy announcement with subsequent permitting data—information typically housed in separate systems. “You can only really get to that once you know the permitting data,” Heller explains. This disconnect means that policymakers, investors, and developers often lack the evidence needed to judge whether reforms are working or to identify the barriers that prevent new projects.

This lack of transparency complicates decisions about where to invest and how to allocate capital, as it becomes harder to distinguish between places where policy changes drive real activity and those where they do not.

Who Gains from Fragmented Data

While Heller does not directly identify the beneficiaries of fragmented information, her experience suggests that larger, well-resourced organizations have an edge. Before starting ReZone, she worked at a pension fund in Switzerland and noticed that a major developer’s advantage came simply from “knowing everybody on the city council.”

This dynamic persists in the U.S. market, where data is public in theory but difficult to aggregate in practice. When information is hard to access, personal connections and local knowledge become more valuable—giving larger or established players a systematic advantage over smaller firms and individual investors. As Heller puts it, “this shouldn’t exist,” highlighting the unfairness that arises from these structural barriers.

The Challenge of Standardization

Even after developing ReZone and overseeing its acquisition, Heller acknowledges that the standardization of public information remains incomplete. “I don’t even think that we’re at the end of the road in city council data, meetings, or data. I think that there is a lot to be done in terms of standardizing information,” she says. Looking back, she sees opportunities to create more consistent, accessible data systems.

This ongoing challenge suggests that addressing information fragmentation in real estate will require sustained efforts by multiple organizations rather than a single comprehensive solution.

Market Efficiency Implications

Combining Shovels AI’s permit tracking with ReZone’s city council monitoring aims to address data fragmentation by providing a more comprehensive view of local development. This approach enables users to link policy changes to actual project activity, reducing information gaps that can distort investment and development decisions.

Whether this model gains widespread adoption depends on how quickly the real estate industry recognizes that fragmented information creates fundamental market inefficiencies. These inefficiencies can misallocate capital, slow development, and entrench advantages for the most prominent players, ultimately affecting who can compete and succeed in local markets.

Looking ahead, the push for better data integration and standardization is likely to intensify as more market participants demand transparency and equal access. For smaller investors and developers, progress on this front could level the playing field. For policymakers and communities, it could mean more effective reforms and a clearer understanding of what drives real change in America’s cities.