VT Census Case Studies : New Residential Construction

Created and last modified by molfe on 09 Aug 2015

Brief Overall Description of the Dataset:

This dataset “provides national and regional data on the number of new housing units authorized by building permits; authorized, but not started; started; under construction; and completed. The data are for new, privately-owned housing units, excluding "HUD-code" manufactured (mobile) homes. The data are from the Building Permits Survey(BPS), and from the Survey of Construction (SOC), which is partially funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Local building permit data may be found on the Building Permits Survey webpage.”

Link: http://www.census.gov/construction/nrc/index.html

Date Inventory Completed: 06/22/2015

Screening

  • Is the data collected opinion-based?
  • Is the data collection recurring (must be collected at least annually)?
  • Is there data available for 2013?
  • For Housing: Is the data collected at the property or housing unit level?
  • Can we access the data by August 15th?

Purpose

  • What is the purpose of the organization collecting the data?

BPS-“The purpose of the Building Permits Survey (BPS) 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.”

SOC- “The purpose of the Survey of Construction (SOC) is to provide national and regional statistics on starts and completions of new single-family and multifamily housing units and statistics on sales of new single-family houses in the United States. The Department of Housing and Urban Development partially funds this survey. The SOC also provides statistics on characteristics of new privately-owned residential structures in the United States. Data included are various characteristics of new single-family houses completed, new multifamily housing completed, new single-family houses sold, and new contractor-built houses started.”

  • Why is it collected and how does the organization use it?

This data is used to allow researchers and policy makers to better understand the housing market in terms of new housing construction in residential areas.

  • Who else uses the data?

Businesses, researchers, policy makers

  • Who do they sell the data to?

Anyone

 

Method

  • What is the data collection method? 

Voluntary survey to permit-issuing offices

  • What is the type of data collected? 

Designed collection

  • If designed, who created the questions?

US Census

  • What is the raw source of the collected data (prior to any aggregation)? 

Self-report by permit-issuing offices


Description

  • What is the general topic of the data (1-2 words)?

Residential Construction, construction permit history records for residential construction

  • What are the earliest and latest dates for which data is available?

1959-2015

  • Is data collected and available periodically?

“About half of the permit-issuing places in the United States are surveyed monthly. The remainder of places are surveyed annually.”

  • How soon after a reference period ends can a data source be prepared and provided? 

“Annual estimates of New Residential Construction are finalized with the release of data for February of the following year. At that time, annual data are also released on the length of time from authorization of construction to start and from start of construction to completion. Quarterly estimates of housing units started and completed by purpose and design are released along with the release of New Residential Construction data for the month after the end of each quarter. For example, data for the first quarter are released with the April estimates of New Residential Construction. The previous quarter is revised with the release of preliminary data for the most recent quarter.”


Selectivity

  • What is the universe (e.g., population) that the data represents?

New residential construction


Accessibility

  • How is the data accessed? 

Download

  • Is it open data?

Yes

  • Any legal, regulatory, or administrative restrictions on accessing the data source?

None stated

  • Cost? - One time or annual or project based payment?

No

Does this dataset appear to meet our needs for the Census study? YES

Full Inventory

Description

  • Features
    • What is the temporal nature of the data: longitudinal, time-series, or one time point?

Time-series

    • Geospatial? If Yes, at what level?

Census Tracts 

 

Metadata

  • Is there information available to assess the transparency and soundness of the methods to gather the data for our purposes?

No

  • Is there a description of each variable in the source along with their valid values?

No

  • Are there unique IDs for unique elements that can be used for linking data?

No

  • Is there a data dictionary or codebook?

None

 

Selectivity

  • What unit is represented at the record level of the data source?

Property

  • Does this universe match the stated intentions for the data collection? If not, what has been included or excluded and why?

Only survey respondents of permit-issuing offices across the United States

  • What is the sampling technique used (if applicable)? 

Random

  • What was the coverage?

Unknown

 

Stability/Coherence

  • Were there any changes to the universe of data being captured (including geographical areas covered) and if so what were they?

“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 2013

2014 Universe includes approximately 20,100 permit-issuing places and is used from January 2014 forward”

  • Were there any changes in the data capture method and if so what were they? 

No

  • Were there any changes in the sources of data and if so what were they? 

No

 

Accuracy

  • Any known sources of error?

“Some new residential construction work in building permit jurisdictions escapes recording. However, the number of such unrecorded units is likely very small. Detailed evidence is lacking as to how closely the valuation recorded for building permit purposes approximates the dollar amount of construction work involved. Changes in boundaries of localities resulting from annexations, new incorporations, etc., result in some problems of comparability over time, even for statistics for the same places.

 Some building permit jurisdictions close their books a few days before the end of the month, so that the time reference for permits is not in all cases strictly the calendar month.”

  • Describe any quality control checks performed by the data’s owner.

Unknown

 

Accessibility

  • Any records or fields collected, but not included in data source, such as for confidentiality reasons)? 

Unknown

  • Is there a subset of variables and/or data that is must be obtained through a separate process? If yes, is there a separate legal, regulatory, or administrative restrictions on accessing the data source? Cost? - One time or annual or project based payment?

No


Privacy and security

  • Was consent given by participant? If so, how was consent given?

The survey was a voluntary response.

  • Are there legal limitations or restrictions on the use of the data? 

No

  • What confidentiality policies does the source have? 

does not include PII

 

Research

  • What research has been done with this dataset? (e.g., impact of policies, predictors of student success)

Unknown

  • Include any links to research if provided:
  • List any other data use notes provided by the supplier.

 

Gaps/Concerns

  • Feasibility - can all jurisdiction levels provide the data (if applicable)?
  • Data ownership - a lack of clarity in legal guidance stemming from alack of clarity with who owns digital data?
  • Data collection authority - what data is reasonably private and what constitutes unwarranted intrusion?
  • Describe any other notes you have or any gaps/concerns you see with this dataset: