Howdy.
I’m looking at a some info about building permits issued and the associated costs. But the dollars are nominal rather than real. I’d like to deflate them; but, I can’t find a time series for cost of construction (of residential housing) anywhere I look.
It’s very frustrating.
Anybody got any clues?
With hope,
js_I thought I’d find that data in no time_africanus
A time series for cost of construction? I’m not sure what that is.
This isn’t online, but are you looking for something like this RSMeans data?
I don’t think so. I’m looking for something more like a CPI or the PPI, but more specific to construction. The county publishes annual reports where they give the number of permits issued and the cost, where the cost is based on a bare-bones estimate of construction costs. This allows me to compare townships. For example, if one township had twice as many permits issued as another, but the total cost of construction was the same, then the buildings in the township with fewer permits are twice the size of the buildings in the township with more permits.
This is interesting stuff. I would like to compare this township with itself over time. (My annual reports go back to '77.) To do this I need to take inflation out of the prices so that they can be comparable. The CPI is a basket of consumer goods, so it would be a pretty crude proxy. I’ve found housing cost info, i.e. prices that people pay, but I’m not sure if that takes into account too much other stuff like location, luxuries, ect. And there’s the PPI, which also seems pretty broad.
I’m thinking that I could figure out the major inputs, e.g. if soft-wood lumber is the vast majority of (residential) building cost, then I think I should be able to find that and use it as a proxy. I wanted to check and see if I could find a price index specific to construction cost and I’m not having much luck.
I should have explained it better in the OP. Sorry about that.
I don’t have answer nor means to get it, but I can suggest two quick sources. First, the U.S. Departments of Commerce and HUD preserve this data, though exactly whom you should contact there is debatable. Second, the FMI Corporation, for which I used to work, has been tracking such information since the 50s. I’d recommend getting in touch with the Manager of Strategic Research there, which was J. Randy Giggard when I left them.
Supplemental to the firm named in my previous post – I went to see if the data were available on their website, and it appears to be down at the moment. But it may be there for the asking.