# Presentation: 048629

## Measuring The American Dream

**The Building Permits Survey:**
**Measuring**** ****The American Dream**

## 2005 State Data Center /

**Business and Industry Data Center ****Annual National Training Conference**
**September 13, 2005**
- Erica Filipek
- Residential Construction Branch
- Manufacturing and Construction Division

## Why does the Census Bureau collect data on building permits?

**Why does the Census Bureau collect data on building permits?**

** ****Data on building permits are used to estimate the**
**   ****numbers of Housing Starts, Housing Completions, **
**   ****and New Home Sales**

** ****The data are also used in the calculation of   **
**   ****population estimates**

** ****Policymakers, investors, public officials, **
**  ****and businesses all need to know what the future  **
**  ****holds for the economy**** **

** ****Building permits estimates are a component of the U.S.**
**  ****Index of Leading Economic Indicators**

** ****New construction generates a need for everything from**
**  ****lumber to sinks to curtains, so it affects many different   **
**  ****parts of the economy**

## Which building permits do we count?

**Which building permits do we count?**

**Only residential permits:**
** ****Single-family houses (attached and detached)**
** ****Apartments**
** ****Senior housing, assisted living facilities, congregate care, etc.**
** ****Permits for additions, alterations, and renovations**

** ****Group quarters (nursing homes, dormitories, etc.)**
** ****Non-residential permits (discontinued in 1995)**
** ****Permits for buildings that are completely publicly-owned**
** ****Manufactured (mobile-HUD inspected) homes**

**What types of permits are excluded?**

## Where do we get the building permits data?

**There are about 40,000 active **
**governments in the U.S.**** :**

**      ****7,000   do not require permits**

**_________**
** ****40,000****   total governments**

**The permit coverage can change monthly!**

**  ****20,000*****  *****unique permit offices make up the**
**	****   ****Building Permits Survey (BPS) universe**

**    ****1,000  exist in multiple counties**

** ****12,000   require a permit from another jurisdiction**

## Offices are surveyed either monthly or annually

**Offices are surveyed either monthly or annually**

** ****The remaining permit offices are surveyed annually**

** ****The monthly data are used to make**
**   ****national, regional, and state estimates**

**Participation in the survey is voluntary!**

** ****Most larger permit offices and a sample of smaller  **
**  ****offices are surveyed monthly**

** ****Monthly and annual reporters keep their reporting status for**
**  ****the life of the sample, unless we are notified that they wish **
**  ****to change reporting status**

** ****Every 10 years a new monthly sample is selected, most   **
**  ****recently in 2004***** ***

## What methods do we use to collect the data?

**What methods do we use to collect the data?**

**These include:**
** ****Mailed Form**
**  ****Faxed Form **
**  ****Paper listings in various formats **
**  ****Electronic files – We receive a file from some jurisdictions**

**We try to make reporting easy.  Unlike many surveys, we will accept data from respondents in almost any form!  **

##   How do we review the data?

**  ****How do we review the data?**

** ****Late reports and corrections received after monthly place- **
**  ****level data are released  are reflected in year-to-date or **
**  ****annual totals**** **

** ****We contact respondents for clarification of questionable data **

** ****Data are also compared to historical patterns for the place**

** ****Data that fall outside established edit parameters are flagged**

** ****We review the data prior to the release of preliminary,   **
**   ****revised monthly and annual estimates **

## What happens if respondents do not report?

** ****We also seek assistance from State Data Centers**
**   ****and other state officials **

** ****We obtain the housing units from the Survey of Construction for   **
**   ****the 900 permit offices that are also in that survey **

** ****We make another attempt to get missing monthly data when**
**   ****we do the annual survey**

** ****We make a second attempt to obtain annual data for places**
**   ****that did not respond to our first request**

** ****We impute the data for non-respondents**** **

## What data are available from the survey?

**What data are available from the survey?**

**There is **_**great**_** interest in this information because very few (if any!) Census Bureau economic surveys provide such timely local data!**

**The survey provides a wealth of timely information on local residential construction trends**

**Permits are public information **

**Data are released monthly and annually for the U.S. total and:**

**  ****The 4 Census Regions**

**  ****The 9 Census Divisions**

**  ****Metropolitan Areas**

**  ****Counties**

**  ****Individual jurisdictions**

**Local monthly data are released on the 18****th**** workday of the following month**

**  ****The 50 States and the District of Columbia**

## What do our monthly data products contain?

**What do our monthly data products contain?**

** ****State data – Based on data from 8,900 monthly reporting places; some  **
**  ****of the monthly places are weighted to represent annual places that are **
**  ****collected at the end of the year**

** ****Place level data – individual jurisdictions that report monthly**

** ****County data – The counties that are listed are the counties**
**   ****where every place within the county reports monthly; currently**
**   ****there are approximately 900 such counties**

** ****Metropolitan Area (MA) data – Every MA is listed, but the data        **
**  ****only come from the monthly reporting places**

## Local data for all 20,000 jurisdictions are available annually on May 1st!  

** ****Place level data – 20,000 individual jurisdictions**

** ****State/Metropolitan Area data – Every State/MA in the U.S. is listed,  **
**   ****and the data represent every permit-issuing place**

** ****County data – Every county within the U.S. is listed; over 3,000 **
**   ****counties**

**Local data for all 20,000 jurisdictions are available annually on May 1st!  **

**What do our annual data products contain?**

## How to access building permits data?

**Use the shortcut **_[www.census.gov/permits](http://www.census.gov/permits)__ _**to get to the New Residential Construction page  **
**Click on  Building Permits**

## Building permits data are used in 

**the annual creation of population estimates**

** ****However, we will provide the Population Division with late **
**   ****reported data and corrections received after our annual closeout **
**   ****for use in their population estimates**

** ****We do not revise the published annual data after May 1****st**

** ****Our annual data are also very important because they affect  **
**   ****the population estimates used by government agencies **
**   ****to allocate funding and other resources to your local area and for**
**   ****various planning purposes**

## How can we work together to improve your state’s building permits data in the future?

** ****We will notify you when we mail out the annual survey **

** ****Through teamwork, we will be able to improve **
**the response for the survey!**

** ****We need your support to update the contact information **
**  ****and to encourage your jurisdictions to respond**

** ****We will provide information on the SDC website on contact information  **
**   ****for permit offices in your state, with those who did not respond to the  **
**   ****monthly survey or to last year’s annual survey identified**

** ****We will provide the detailed annual data for your review        **
**  ****prior to their use in population estimates**

** ****We will provide more details on this process soon**

** ****Please contact CLO if you have feedback on how to implement**
**   ****this process**

## State Data Centers and the local jurisdictions can also receive a free subscription to our standard data products

**State Data Centers and the local jurisdictions can also receive a free subscription to our standard data products**

## If you:

** ****are interested in receiving data**
** ****have information that affect data**
** ****have questions **

*** ***

**Please contact our office**

**Our phone number is:**
**(301) 763-5160**
**Our toll free number for respondents is:**
**800-845-8244**

## Are there any questions?