Terra

Terra is a tool for making a hard, sprawling decision - where to live - with something better than gut feel and a dozen browser tabs. It scores a curated set of candidate locations against a weighted rubric of the things that actually matter to a household, so the comparison is explicit, adjustable, and repeatable.

How it works

• A weighted rubric. Dozens of locations are scored across many categories. You set the weights, so the ranking reflects your priorities rather than a generic “best places to live” list - and you can re-weight and instantly see the order change.
• Real data behind each score. Categories are backed by concrete inputs - climate normals, cost-of-living and housing figures, tax modeling - rather than vibes, so a high score traces back to numbers you can inspect.
• Built to compare, not just rank. Side-by-side views and charts (climate curves, cost breakdowns) make the trade-offs between two finalists legible, which is where this kind of decision actually gets made.

Notes

It’s a client-heavy React/TypeScript app with a data pipeline feeding the rubric, run privately for my own household’s use. The interesting engineering is in the scoring model and keeping the underlying datasets honest and current.