Building Permits by County
How many new homes building permits authorized in each Massachusetts county every year since 1990, split into single-family houses, duplexes, small 3–4 unit buildings and apartment buildings of five units or more, with the number of buildings and their construction value. Use it to see where housing is being added, how fast, and in what form, as an early sign of growth in households, travel demand and school enrollment, and to compare counties or follow one county's building boom or slowdown over three decades.
- Published by
- US Census Bureau
- Source
- BPS (Census building permits)
- Original data
- www2.census.gov
- On the map
- No shapes of its own
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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.
"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.
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.
The dollar volume of residential construction should be used with caution. Because of the nature of the building permit application process, valuations may frequently differ from the true cost of construction. Any attempt to use these figures for inter-area comparisons of construction volume must, at best, be made cautiously and with broad reservations.
Fields
What each record holds, as the publisher describes it: 19 fields.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
FIPS State, FIPS County | County FIPS code: state + county |
County Name | County name, as the Bureau writes it |
Survey Date | Calendar year the permits were issued |
1-unit Bldgs | Single-family buildings (estimate) |
1-unit Units | Single-family housing units (estimate) |
1-unit Value | Construction value of the single-family units, dollars (estimate) |
2-units Bldgs | Two-unit buildings (estimate) |
2-units Units | Housing units in two-unit buildings (estimate) |
2-units Value | Their construction value, dollars (estimate) |
3-4 units Bldgs | Three- and four-unit buildings (estimate) |
3-4 units Units | Housing units in three- and four-unit buildings (estimate) |
3-4 units Value | Their construction value, dollars (estimate) |
5+ units Bldgs | Buildings of five units or more (estimate) |
5+ units Units | Housing units in buildings of five units or more (estimate) |
5+ units Value | Their construction value, dollars (estimate) |
1-unit rep … 5+ units rep | The same twelve counts as reported by permit offices, with nothing imputed |
(computed) | All buildings: the four sizes added (estimate) |
(computed) | All housing units: the four sizes added (estimate) |
(computed) | All construction value, dollars (estimate) |