Single-Family Permit Value
The average declared construction value per housing unit authorized in one-unit structures.
Permit offices report a valuation alongside units and buildings. The Census Bureau defines it as "the estimated value of the residential structure as shown on the building permit. If no value is listed on the permit, we accept estimates from the permit official" (Building Permits Survey definitions).
One-unit structures are the Bureau's single-family category, which "include fully detached, semidetached (semiattached, side-by-side), row houses, and townhouses," provided attached units are separated by a ground-to-roof wall and do not share heating, cooling or utilities.
Restricting the measure to that category removes the largest source of noise in a blended permit value, which is the mix between houses and apartments. What remains is a read on the tier of detached and attached house a place is currently authorizing: whether new single-family construction there is entry-level product or high-end product.
Values are as declared, in the dollars of the year the permit was issued, and are not adjusted for inflation.
Metrics in this family#
Single-family permit value
levelDeclared valuation for one-unit structures divided by the units authorized in them. Because a small place may authorize only a handful of houses in a year, the figure is read across a window of recent years rather than a single year.
Considerations#
Annual figures run from 2013 and monthly figures from January 2020, in both cases through the most recent release. Publication lags the present, and recent periods can move as late reports arrive.
Declared valuation is not market value. The Bureau states that "valuations may frequently differ from the true cost of construction," and adds: "Detailed evidence is lacking as to how closely the valuation recorded for building permit purposes approximates the dollar amount of construction work involved" (methodology). Treat this as a cost proxy for comparing places, not as a price.
Reporting practice differs between permit offices. Some record a contractor's estimate and others a standard figure used to set permit fees, and the survey does not reconcile them. Comparisons between neighbouring jurisdictions can therefore reflect administrative habit as well as the buildings themselves.
Where an office reports units but no valuation, the Bureau imputes the value from the average cost per unit for the same structure type and Census region.
The measure has no meaning where nothing single-family was authorized. Places with no one-unit permits in the window carry no value rather than a low one.
The category is structural, not economic. A townhouse and a large detached house on acreage are both one-unit structures, so places whose new construction differs in form will differ in value for reasons unrelated to quality.
Permits are published for places, counties and metro areas, not tracts. See how we combine geographies.
References#
- 1Building Permits Survey definitionshttps://www.census.gov/construction/bps/definitions.html
- 2Building Permits Survey Methodologyhttps://www.census.gov/construction/bps/methodology.html