Simple script to pull redfin entries and plot a price histogram

redfin_rss_parser.py

import feedparser
import numpy as np
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
from matplotlib.ticker import FuncFormatter

# Local file so none of you see my actual search
from rss_feed_url import url

def get_houses(url):
    """
    Pull the 'entries' item from a Redfin RSS feed address

    Parameters
    ----------
    url : str
        Redfin RSS URL to pull from (e.g. 'http://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/rss-saved-search/11111111')

    Return
    ------
    List : One item per house in 'entries'
    """
    feed = feedparser.parse(url)
    return feed['entries']

def get_prices(entries):
    """
    Extract the prices from the RSS feed.  I didn't see
      a great way to get the price other than the title.

    Parameters
    ----------
    entries : list
        'entries' item from Redfin RSS feed

    Return
    ------
    Price of houses
    """
    prices = []
    for i in range(len(entries)):
        title = entries[i]['title']

        # This is a hail mary that worked in my subset of houses
        price = title[1:title.find(' ')].replace(',', '')
        prices.append(int(price))
    return prices

def plot_prices(prices, figsize=(10, 5), bins=None,
                range_text=None, range_low=None, range_high=None):
    """
    Plot a histogram of house prices

    prices : list
        A list of house prices
    figsize : tuple, optional (default = (10, 5))
        (width * height) of plot
    bins : list or tuple, optional, default is None
        X bins for histogram

    Return
    ------
    fig, ax
    """
    fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=figsize)

    # Add a plot
    ax.hist(prices, bins=bins, color='#0066ff', edgecolor='white')

    if range_text is not None:
        # Add some commentary
        plt.text(np.mean([range_low, range_high]),
                 12,
                 range_text,
                 ha='center',
                 fontsize=12,
                 color='red'
                 )

        plt.axvspan(range_low, range_high, facecolor='lightgrey', 
                    alpha=0.5, lw=0)

    # Labels
    ax.set_title("# of Eligible Houses by Price Range")
    plt.ylabel('Number of houses in price range')
    plt.xlabel('House Price')

    # Formatting stuff
    plt.tick_params(axis='both', which='both', 
                    top='off', left='off', right='off', bottom='off')
    formatter = FuncFormatter(thousands)
    ax.xaxis.set_major_formatter(formatter)
    return fig, ax

def thousands(x, pos):
    "Don't need to use the `pos` parameter"
    return '${:,.0f}K'.format(x / 1000.)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    entries = get_houses(url)
    prices = get_prices(entries)
    fig, ax = plot_prices(prices,
                          bins=range(300000, 650000, 25000),
                          range_text='Ideal price range',
                          range_low=475000,
                          range_high=550000)
    plt.show()

Hello cbjorgol: Does this feed for Redfin still work. I have tried putting in different values at the end of: http://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/rss-saved-search/11111111; and I get different answers; but I can't figure what these values correlate with or how to link a feed to my saved searchs? Thanks, Steve

Hi! I'd also like to know where you get this RSS link values as @selster mentions above.