diff --git a/data/sql/162_drop_district_economics_sat_factor.sql b/data/sql/162_drop_district_economics_sat_factor.sql
index e36e0586..47c6044a 100644
--- a/data/sql/162_drop_district_economics_sat_factor.sql
+++ b/data/sql/162_drop_district_economics_sat_factor.sql
@@ -5,8 +5,14 @@
 -- The live market sub-score uses sat_score = min(100, sold_pct * 100 / 70) directly,
 -- so sat_factor double-counts absorption without being applied anywhere.
 -- All code references removed in the same commit as this migration.
+--
+-- NB: ALTER TABLE *IF EXISTS* — district_economics is created by the site-finder
+-- pipeline (09_macro_and_trend.py / server.py), NOT by data/sql migrations, so it may
+-- be absent on the main Postgres. Without IF EXISTS the deploy fails with
+-- "relation district_economics does not exist" (DROP COLUMN IF EXISTS only guards the
+-- column, not the table). Idempotent + safe when the table is absent.
 BEGIN;
 
-ALTER TABLE district_economics DROP COLUMN IF EXISTS sat_factor;
+ALTER TABLE IF EXISTS district_economics DROP COLUMN IF EXISTS sat_factor;
 
 COMMIT;