The BuildZoom & Urban Economics Lab Index Technical Document

The BuildZoom & Urban Economics Lab index is a joint endeavor of BuildZoom and the Urban Economics Laboratory of the MIT Center for Real Estate. The set of indices leverages BuildZoom’s repository of building permit data to track residential permitting activity, and was developed jointly with Professor Albert Saiz of the Center for Real Estate at MIT. Separate indices track permitting for construction of new homes and for remodeling of existing homes both nationally and in individual metropolitan areas. The indices complement residential building permit statistics published by the U.S. Census. The Census’ Building Permits Survey considers only new homes, not existing homes. In addition, whereas the Census figures are obtained from a regular questionnaire asking local governments how many building permits were issued, the BuildZoom & Urban Economics Lab index is compiled from the ground up, based on individual building permit records. This document briefly describes BuildZoom’s building permit repository, and then proceeds to review the indices’ underlying methodology, quantify their reliability, and benchmarks indices against data from the U.S. Census. ∗Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]. In this document the term remodeling is used broadly to include home improvement, maintenance and repair. The questionnaire is Form C-404.