The purpose of the Building Permits Survey is to provide national, state, and local statistics on the number and valuation of new privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in the United States.
The United States Code, Title 13, authorizes the Census Bureau to conduct this collection and to request your voluntary assistance. These data are subject to provisions of Title 13, United States Code, Section 9(b) exempting data that are customarily provided in public records from rules of confidentiality.
The Conference Board uses the data for developing its index of leading economic indicators. The Federal Reserve Board uses the data to analyze national and regional economic conditions. The Department of Housing and Urban Development uses the data to evaluate housing programs. Financial institutions use these statistics to estimate mortgage demand. Private businesses use them for market planning, material use, and investment analysis.
Total units authorized by Census Region and Structure Type (Unadjusted and Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate); Total units authorized and Total Valuation by State and Structure Type; Total number of buildings with 5 units or more by State.
Data on permits issued for new construction are available monthly and annually since 1959; reported data are for permit issuing activity taking place during the applicable reference period. Prior to 1959, data were collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Building permits data are collected from individual permit offices, most of which are municipalities; the remainder are counties, townships, or New England and Middle Atlantic-type towns. Because building permits are public records, local area data can be published without any confidentiality concerns.
Building permits data are available in four basic levels of aggregation: state, core based statistical area (CBSA), county, and permit-issuing place. The state data are also aggregated to create estimates for the Census Divisions, Census Regions, and the United States.
Data are also collected for Puerto Rico and U.S. territories, although these areas are excluded from the national estimates.
For more geographic information, please refer to the definitions of Census Regions and Divisions and core based statistical areas
Estimates of the number of new housing units authorized by building permits and total valuation of building permits are published by structure type (1 unit, 2 units, 3 and 4 units, 5 units or more).
Many of our data products by county and permit-issuing place show "Reported only" data as well as "Estimates with Imputation." The "Reported Only" data are based only on reports received from permit offices and data obtained from the following additional data sources: electronic files, Survey of Construction and Third-Party data; and do not include any imputation for missing data. "Estimates with Imputation" include both reported and imputed data.
New Residential Construction press releases contain the first available permit data and are released on the or about the 12th working day following the reference month. The reports contain the first available preliminary monthly estimates of the number of new housing units authorized. Data are shown by type of structure, at the national level, and by Census Region. All data are placed on the Census website at: www.census.gov/starts.
Revised monthly data are released on or about the 17th working day following the reference month. At that time, monthly estimates are available at the Census Division, state, metropolitan area, county, and permit-issuing-place levels. All data are placed on the Census website at: www.census.gov/permits. Estimates in the New Residential Construction press release are not updated on the 17th working day. Any revisions are shown in the next month’s release.
Monthly estimates are benchmarked each year following the completion of the annual survey to create final annual estimates which are released on the 1st working day of May. The benchmarked monthly estimates are made available with the release of April data on the New Residential Construction.
All estimates are released according to the published release schedule
Preliminary estimates for the United States and Census Regions are released on approximately the 12th working day each month in the New Residential Construction (NRC) Press Release
Revised monthly estimates for the U.S. and Census Regions are released on approximately the 17th working day of the month. Estimates in the New Residential Construction release are not revised on the 17th working day; any revisions are shown in the following month's release. An analysis of the NRC revisions is updated with the release of each year's preliminary January and July data.
On the same day that the revised monthly estimates for the U.S. and Census Regions are released, monthly estimates by Census Division, state, metropolitan area, county, and permit-issuing place are also released. The monthly estimates by Census Division, state, metropolitan area, county, and permit-issuing place are not revised after their initial release. However, the year-to-date estimates are revised each month to reflect late reports received or corrections made to reports from prior months in the year.
After the completion of the annual survey, final annual estimates for the previous year for the U.S. and by Census Region, Census Division, state, metropolitan area, county, and permit-issuing place are released on the first working day in May. With the release of April data on New Residential Construction, revised monthly estimates for the U.S. and Census Regions for the prior year which have been benchmarked to the final annual totals are released. With each April release, seasonally adjusted data is revised for an additional five years beyond the revision period for unadjusted data to reflect updated seasonal factors. Research has shown that this revision span should produce more reliable seasonally adjusted time series.
No other not seasonally adjusted monthly data are revised after the completion of the annual survey. No annual data are revised after the release of the final annual estimates.
In the event of an unplanned data revision, revised statistics may be made available under BPS Main or Data.
Internal Census Bureau policies are followed for notifying sponsors and primary stakeholders.
You may contact us by phone at (301) 763-5160 or email us at eid.rcb.bps@census.gov
