Market snapshot

The simplest possible Estaite example. One tool call — get_estaite_cbsa_overview — returns the average rent, vacancy, year-over-year growth, and the list of submarkets inside a metro area.

The code

Save as market-snapshot.py:

"""
Market snapshot — give it a city, get a rental market summary.

Setup:
    pip install mcp
    export ESTAITE_API_KEY="mk_..."

Usage:
    python market-snapshot.py --city "Austin"
"""

import argparse
import asyncio
import json
import os
import sys

from mcp import ClientSession
from mcp.client.streamable_http import streamablehttp_client


MCP_URL = "https://mcp.estaite.com"


async def fetch_snapshot(api_key: str, city: str) -> dict:
    headers = {"x-api-key": api_key}
    async with streamablehttp_client(MCP_URL, headers=headers) as (read, write, _):
        async with ClientSession(read, write) as session:
            await session.initialize()
            result = await session.call_tool(
                "get_estaite_cbsa_overview",
                {"cbsa": city},
            )
            if not result.content:
                raise RuntimeError("Empty response from Estaite")
            return json.loads(result.content[0].text)


def print_snapshot(city: str, data: dict) -> None:
    print()
    cbsa_name = data.get("cbsa_name") or city
    state = data.get("state") or ""
    as_of = data.get("as_of") or ""
    print(f"  ── {cbsa_name}{', ' + state if state else ''} rental market ──")
    if as_of:
        print(f"  as of {as_of}")
    print()

    if data.get("error"):
        print(f"  No data: {data['error']}")
        return

    summary = data.get("cbsa_summary") or {}
    apts_2br = (summary.get("segments") or {}).get("apartments", {}).get("br2", {})
    avg_rent = apts_2br.get("avg_rent")
    avg_yoy  = apts_2br.get("avg_yoy")
    avg_vac  = summary.get("avg_vacancy_rate")
    avg_inc  = summary.get("avg_household_income")
    n_subs   = data.get("submarket_count", len(data.get("submarkets", [])))

    # YoY and vacancy come back as whole-percent (e.g. 3.4 means 3.4%), not decimals.
    if avg_rent is not None: print(f"  Avg apt 2BR rent:           ${avg_rent:,.0f}/mo")
    if avg_yoy  is not None: print(f"  Avg apt 2BR YoY:            {avg_yoy:+.1f}%")
    if avg_vac  is not None: print(f"  Avg vacancy:                {avg_vac:.1f}%")
    if avg_inc  is not None: print(f"  Avg household income:       ${avg_inc:,.0f}")
    print(f"  Submarkets covered:         {n_subs}")
    print()

    # Top 5 submarkets by 2BR apartment rent
    subs = data.get("submarkets", [])
    if subs:
        def br2_rent(s):
            return ((s.get("segments") or {}).get("apartments") or {}).get("br2", {}).get("median_rent") or 0
        top = sorted(subs, key=br2_rent, reverse=True)[:5]
        print("  Top 5 submarkets by apt 2BR median rent:")
        for s in top:
            name = (s.get("name") or "—")[:34]
            rent = br2_rent(s)
            if rent:
                print(f"    {name:35s} ${rent:,.0f}/mo")
        print()

    if data.get("attribution"):
        print(f"  {data['attribution']}")
    print()


def main():
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Rental market snapshot for a US city/metro")
    parser.add_argument("--city", required=True, help='City or metro name (e.g. "Austin")')
    args = parser.parse_args()

    api_key = os.environ.get("ESTAITE_API_KEY")
    if not api_key:
        print("ERROR: ESTAITE_API_KEY env var not set.")
        sys.exit(1)

    print(f"\nFetching market snapshot for {args.city}...")
    data = asyncio.run(fetch_snapshot(api_key, args.city))
    print_snapshot(args.city, data)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Run it

python market-snapshot.py --city "Austin"

Sample output

Fetching market snapshot for Austin...

  ── Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX rental market ──
  as of 202603

  Avg apt 2BR rent:           $1,672/mo
  Avg apt 2BR YoY:            -4.3%
  Avg vacancy:                3.8%
  Avg household income:       $116,174
  Submarkets covered:         32

  Top 5 submarkets by apt 2BR median rent:
    Tarrytown / Clarksville             $2,465/mo
    East Cesar Chavez                   $2,438/mo
    Dripping Springs                    $1,956/mo
    Lakeway / Bee Cave                  $1,894/mo
    Del Valle / Easton Park             $1,872/mo

  Data provided by Estaite Solutions (estaite.com)

(Numbers shift each month as the data refreshes — yours may differ.)

What’s happening

1. session.initialize() — MCP protocol handshake. Every session starts with this.
2. session.call_tool("get_estaite_cbsa_overview", {"cbsa": city}) — single call to fetch the entire metro view, including submarkets.
3. The tool returns a JSON string in result.content[0].text; we parse it and pretty-print the parts we care about.

A note on units

Estaite returns percentages as whole-percent values (e.g. 3.4 means 3.4%, not 0.034). Don’t multiply by 100 before formatting — you’ll get absurd numbers like “340%”. This applies to avg_yoy, avg_vacancy_rate, and any other field with _rate, _yoy, or _change in the name.

Next steps

• Switch metros without restarting the session. Wrap the call in a loop and pass different cbsa values inside the same with block — saves the handshake overhead.
• Drill into a single submarket. Take an id from data["submarkets"] and feed it to query_estaite_submarket_index for full per-segment metrics.
• Compare two metros side by side. Run two get_estaite_cbsa_overview calls and diff the cbsa_summary blocks.