Building Permits Survey

Definitions - Building Permits Survey

20,000–Place Series

See Universe.

Authorization

The act of a local jurisdiction approving construction projects by issuing building or zoning permits.

Building or Zoning Permit

The approval given by a local jurisdiction to proceed on a construction project. Note that not all areas of the country require a permit for construction.

Confidence Interval

The sample estimate and an estimate of its standard error allow us to construct interval estimates with prescribed confidence that the interval includes the average result of all possible samples with the same size and design. To illustrate, if all possible samples were surveyed under essentially the same conditions, and estimates calculated from each sample, then:

1. Approximately 68 percent of the intervals from one standard error below the estimate to one standard error above the estimate would include the average value of all possible samples.
2. Approximately 90 percent of the intervals from 1.6 standard errors below the estimate to 1.6 standard errors above the estimate would include the average value of all possible samples.

Thus, for a particular sample, one can say with specified confidence that the average of all possible samples is included in the constructed interval.

Division

The standard Census geographic divisions are used in these statistics. These can be found at: www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/maps-data/maps/reference/us_regdiv.pdf

Estimates with Imputation

When a report is not received from a building permit office, missing housing unit data are either obtained by using permits listed for the Census Bureau's Survey of Construction (SOC) or are imputed. Data from the SOC are available for only about 900 permit offices. For places not in the SOC, imputations are used. Imputations are based on the assumption that the ratio of current month or year authorizations to the prior annual total should be the same for reporting and nonreporting places.

Data labeled as "Estimates with Imputation" include the imputed data as well as reported data from the respondent or from the SOC.

FIPS State and County Codes

Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) codes uniquely identify states, counties, and other related location entities. These are now more properly named the ANSI codes for the American National Standards Institute. For details, see the ANSI website: www.census.gov/programs-surveys/geography/geographies/reference-files.All.html.

Footnote

Footnotes are available to explain changes in building permit coverage for individual municipalities. In most cases, these clarify the actual geographic coverage of a permit office, which is not always obvious from the place name.

Housing Unit

A housing unit, as defined for purposes of these data, is a house, an apartment, a group of rooms, or a single room intended for occupancy as separate living quarters. Separate living quarters are those in which the occupants live separately from any other individuals in the building and which have a direct access from the outside of the building or through a common hall.

In accordance with this definition, each apartment unit in an apartment building is counted as one housing unit. Housing units, as distinguished from "HUD-code" manufactured (mobile) homes, include conventional "site-built" units, prefabricated, panelized, sectional, and modular units.

Housing unit statistics also exclude group quarters (such as dormitories and rooming houses), transient accommodations (such as transient hotels, motels, and tourist courts), moved or relocated buildings, and housing units created in an existing residential or nonresidential structure.

Units in assisted living facilities are considered to be housing units, however, units in nursing homes are not considered to be housing units.

"HUD-code" Manufactured (mobile) Home

A manufactured home is defined as a movable dwelling, 8 feet or more wide and 40 feet or more long, designed to be towed on its own chassis, with transportation gear integral to the unit when it leaves the factory, and without need of a permanent foundation. These homes are built in accordance with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) building code.

Statistics on manufactured homes are excluded from the New Residential Construction statistics. These can be found on the Manufactured Housing Survey website at www.census.gov/programs-surveys/mhs.html.

Manufactured Home

See "HUD-code" Manufactured Home.

Metropolitan Areas

The titles and definitions for Metropolitan Areas (MAs), which are made up of Metropolitan Core-Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs), conform to those defined by the Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President, as of December 2003. More information on Metropolitan Areas can be found at www.census.gov/programs-surveys/metro-micro.html.

Mobile Home

See "HUD-code" Manufactured Home.

Multifamily Housing

Residential buildings containing units built one on top of another and those built side-by-side which do not have a ground-to-roof wall and/or have common facilities (i.e., attic, basement, heating plant, plumbing, etc.)

New Residential Construction

The category of statistics called "New Residential Construction" consists of data on the five phases of a residential construction project: (1) housing units authorized to be built by a building or zoning permit; (2) housing units authorized to be built, but not yet started; (3) housing units started; (4) housing units under construction; and (5) housing units completed.

New residential construction statistics exclude group quarters (such as dormitories and rooming houses), transient accommodations (such as transient hotels, motels, and tourist courts), "HUD-code" manufactured (mobile) homes, moved or relocated buildings, and housing units created in an existing residential or nonresidential structure.

In a new building combining residential and nonresidential floor areas, every effort is made to include the residential units in these statistics, even if the primary function of the entire building is for nonresidential purposes.

These statistics only include privately-owned buildings. Publicly-owned housing units are excluded from the statistics. Units in structures built by private developers with partial public subsidies or which are for sale upon completion to local public housing authorities under the HUD "Turnkey" program are all classified as private housing.

Not Seasonally Adjusted

Data labeled "Not Seasonally Adjusted" refers to the fact that the data are not adjusted for seasonality using seasonal adjustment and not shown at an annual rate.

Detailed information on seasonal adjustment can be found at: www.census.gov/topics/research/seasonal-adjustment.html.

One-Unit

See "Single-Family House."

Permit-Issuing Place

A geographic area that issues building or zoning permits for the construction of residential structures. The area may be a single municipality or county or a combination of multiple municipalities.

Privately-Owned

Structures not owned by any federal, state, or local government. Units in structures built by private developers with partial public subsidies or which are for sale upon completion to local public housing authorities under the HUD "Turnkey" program are all classified as private housing.

Public Housing

Public housing is a residential building owned by a federal, state or local agency.

Units in structures built by private developers with partial public subsidies or which are for sale upon completion to local public housing authorities under the HUD "Turnkey" program are all classified as private housing.

Region

The standard Census geographic regions are used in these statistics. States contained in each region are as follows:

Northeast	Midwest	South	West
Connecticut	Illinois	Alabama	Alaska
Maine	Indiana	Arkansas	Arizona
Massachusetts	Iowa	Delaware	California
New Hampshire	Kansas	District of Columbia	Colorado
New Jersey	Michigan	Florida	Hawaii
New York	Minnesota	Georgia	Idaho
Pennsylvania	Missouri	Kentucky	Montana
Rhode Island	Nebraska	Louisiana	Nevada
Vermont	North Dakota	Maryland	New Mexico
	Ohio	Mississippi	Oregon
	South Dakota	North Carolina	Utah
	Wisconsin	Oklahoma	Washington
		South Carolina	Wyoming
		Tennessee
		Texas
		Virginia
		West Virginia

A map of the regions can be found at: www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/maps-data/maps/reference/us_regdiv.pdf.

Relative Standard Error (RSE)

The estimated standard error expressed as a percent of the estimated total or proportion, that is, the estimated standard error times 100 divided by the estimate. This is also called coefficient of variation (CV).

Residential Building

A residential building is a building consisting primarily of housing units. In a new building combining residential and nonresidential floor areas, every effort is made to include the residential units in these statistics, even if the primary function of the entire building is for nonresidential purposes.

Reported Data

Data labeled as "Reported Data" include the data reported from the respondent or from the Census Bureau's Survey of Construction (SOC) but exclude imputed data.

Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate

Seasonal adjustment is the process of estimating and removing seasonal effects from a time series to better reveal certain non-seasonal features such as underlying trends and business cycles. Seasonal adjustment procedures estimate effects that occur in the same calendar month with similar magnitude and direction from year to year. In series whose seasonal effects come primarily from weather, the seasonal factors are estimates of average weather effects for each month. Seasonal adjustment does not account for abnormal weather conditions or for year-to-year changes in weather. Seasonal factors are estimates based on present and past experience. Future data may show a different pattern.

Most of the seasonally adjusted series are shown as seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR). The seasonally adjusted annual rate is the seasonally adjusted monthly value multiplied by 12. The benefit of the annual rate is that not only can one monthly estimate be compared with another; monthly data can also be compared with an annual total. The seasonally adjusted annual rate is neither a forecast nor a projection; rather it is a description of the rate of building permits, housing starts, housing completions, or new home sales in the particular month for which they are calculated.

Data labeled "Not Seasonally Adjusted" refers to the fact that the data are not adjusted for seasonality using seasonal adjustment and not shown at an annual rate.

Detailed information on seasonal adjustment can be found at: www.census.gov/topics/research/seasonal-adjustment.html.

Single-Family House

The single-family statistics include fully detached, semidetached (semiattached, side-by-side), row houses, and townhouses. In the case of attached units, each must be separated from the adjacent unit by a ground-to-roof wall in order to be classified as a single-family structure. Also, these units must not share heating/air-conditioning systems or utilities.

Units built one on top of another and those built side-by-side that do not have a ground-to-roof wall and/or have common facilities (i.e., attic, basement, heating plant, plumbing, etc.) are not included in the single-family statistics.

Standard Error

Measure of the variation among the estimates from all possible samples; measure of the precision with which an estimate from a particular sample approximates the average results of all possible samples; square root of the sampling variance.

Structure, Type of

The statistics, by type of structure, refer to the structural characteristics of the building.

The one-unit structure category is a single-family home. It includes fully detached, semidetached (semiattached, side-by-side), row houses, and townhouses (see "Single-Family House".)

Multifamily structures are classified by the number of housing units in the structure.

Data are tabulated for 2 units, 3 and 4 units combined, and 5 or more unit structures.

Turnkey Housing

Units in structures built by private developers with partial public subsidies or that are for sale upon completion to local public housing authorities.

Unadjusted

For State data: Not seasonally adjusted; For MSA data: Not seasonally adjusted and not weighted.

Universe (Building Permits Survey)

For estimates of housing units authorized from the Building Permits Survey, the "Universe" is defined as all unique permit offices at the time the last sample was selected. "Unique" permit offices are those jurisdictions that would not result in double reporting. For example, if a city issues zoning permits and its county issues building permits (including permits for buildings in the city(, only the county office is included in the universe. The numbers associated with the various universes (e.g., 20,000-place universe( are rounded for ease of identification:

1959 Universe included approximately 10,000 permit-issuing places and was used from January 1959 to December 1962
1963 Universe included approximately 12,000 permit-issuing places and was used from January 1963 to December 1966
1967 Universe included approximately 13,000 permit-issuing places and was used from January 1967 to December 1971
1972 Universe included approximately 14,000 permit-issuing places and was used from January 1972 to December 1977
1978 Universe included approximately 16,000 permit-issuing places and was used from January 1978 to December 1983
1984 Universe included approximately 17,000 permit-issuing places and was used from January 1984 to December 1993
1994 Universe included approximately 19,000 permit-issuing places and was used from January 1994 to December 2003
2004 Universe included approximately 19,300 permit-issuing places and was used from January 2004 to December 2014
2014 Universe includes approximately 20,100 permit-issuing places and is used from January 2014 forward

Valuation

The valuation is 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.