NYC ACRIS — NYC Real Property Records

1. Summary

The Automated City Register Information System (ACRIS) is NYC's index of recorded property documents: deeds, mortgages, satisfactions, liens, UCC filings. Covers Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island. Published as 4 linked Socrata datasets on the NYC Open Data portal.

2. Access Methods

Socrata API: https://data.cityofnewyork.us/resource/636b-3b5g.json (Parties)
Other datasets: bnx9-e6tj (Master), 8h5j-fqxa (Legal), uqqa-hym2 (References)
Auth: None for read access (Socrata $app_token raises rate limits if needed)
Rate limit: Generous (~1000 req/hour unauthenticated)

3. Data Schema

Key fields emitted by fetch_nyc_acris.py (Parties joined to Master):

Column	Type	Description
`document_id`	str	ACRIS document ID
`name`	str	Party name as recorded (often "LAST, FIRST" but varies)
`party_type`	str	1=grantor, 2=grantee, 3=other
`party_role`	str	Human-readable role label
`address_1`	str	Property or party address line 1
`city`, `state`, `zip`, `country`	str	Address parts
`doc_type`	str	DEED, MTGE (mortgage), SAT (satisfaction), AGMT, etc.
`doc_date`, `recorded_date`	str	YYYY-MM-DD
`borough`	str	Manhattan / Bronx / Brooklyn / Queens / Staten Island
`amount`	str	Document amount (USD, when applicable)
`filing_url`	str	Direct ACRIS DocumentImageView link

4. Coverage

NYC 5 boroughs only — other counties have their own recorders
1966 → present (older filings exist on microfilm at the County Clerk)
Updated nightly
~70M+ party records cumulative

5. Cross-Reference Potential

SEC EDGAR ↔ name (insider filers with NYC property)
USAspending ↔ name (federal contractors with NYC property)
Senate LDA ↔ name (lobbyists / clients with NYC property)
ICIJ Offshore ↔ name (NYC properties owned via offshore vehicles)

Join key: normalized party name. NYC property records typically store names as "LAST, FIRST" or full LLC names — use entity_resolution.py.

6. Data Quality

Same person appears with multiple name formats over time
LLC and trust ownership obscures beneficial owners
Recording lag can be 2-4 weeks after closing
Older documents have spottier address data
Sealed records (e.g. domestic violence shelters) are excluded by law

7. Acquisition Script

Path: scripts/fetch_nyc_acris.py

# By party name
python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_nyc_acris.py --name "ROLNICK" --out data/acris.csv

# By address (useful when you know the property but not the names)
python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_nyc_acris.py --address "571 HUDSON" --out data/acris.csv

# Restrict to grantees (buyers / mortgagees)
python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_nyc_acris.py --name "ROLNICK" --party-type 2 \
    --out data/acris_buyers.csv

The script joins Parties → Master to populate doc_type, dates, borough, and amount. Pass --no-enrich to skip the join (faster, fewer columns).

8. Legal & Licensing

Public record under NYS Real Property Law and NYC Charter
No commercial use restrictions on the data
All ACRIS data is public information by statute

9. References

ACRIS portal: https://a836-acris.nyc.gov/CP/
NYC Open Data: https://data.cityofnewyork.us/
Parties dataset: https://data.cityofnewyork.us/City-Government/ACRIS-Real-Property-Parties/636b-3b5g
Document type codes: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/finance/taxes/acris.page

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