Data sources
Public agency datasets powering Housing BuildDesignHub
Housing BuildDesignHub is built on citable public data — no scraping of commercial listing sites. Each source shows its current use, future role, and adapter wiring status.
Civic context
A federal public-data office, not a partner
A verified Wikimedia Commons photo of the U.S. Census Bureau headquarters is used here as civic data-source context. It does not imply partnership, endorsement, or live integration. Housing BuildDesignHub's Census-derived metrics come from public ACS and BPS releases via the source-adapter pipeline.
Image: Wikimedia Commons · United States Census Bureau · Public domain
Public-data background
Short explainers from the agencies whose data this project uses. Embedded as background context. Embedding a video does not imply an agency partnership or endorsement of Housing BuildDesignHub.
Housing
American Community Survey
U.S. Census Bureau
high confidencewired (fixture)Detailed demographic, housing, and economic estimates for U.S. geographies, including rent, home value, and tenure.
Current use
Drives population, median household income, median gross rent, median home value, and housing units for every supported market.
Future expansion
Add rent-burden tables, tenure share, and household composition.
Updates annuallyOpen source ↗House Price Index
Federal Housing Finance Agency
high confidencewired (fixture)Measure of single-family home price changes based on repeat-sales and refinancings of mortgages purchased or securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Current use
Drives home price index (latest quarter) and the price momentum signal via computed YoY change.
Future expansion
Add long-horizon momentum (3-yr / 5-yr) and SA series.
Updates quarterlyOpen source ↗
Supply & Permits
Building Permits Survey
U.S. Census Bureau
high confidencewired (fixture)Monthly counts of new residential construction permits authorized by local jurisdictions across the U.S.
Current use
Drives trailing-12-month residential permit totals (incl. single-family and multifamily) and the supply signal.
Future expansion
Add structure-type splits and permits-per-1k-residents trend.
Updates monthlyOpen source ↗
Jobs & Economy
Primary Mortgage Market Survey
Freddie Mac (via FRED)
high confidencefutureWeekly U.S. average mortgage rates for 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate loans, sourced from Freddie Mac.
Future expansion
Wire as input to the affordability signal (mortgage-rate adjusted).
Updates weeklyOpen source ↗Local Area Unemployment Statistics
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
high confidencewired (fixture)Monthly estimates of labor force, employment, and unemployment for states, metros, counties, and cities.
Current use
Drives the job market signal — county-level unemployment rate, its 12-month change, and labor force / employment / unemployment counts. Surfaced on city overviews and the investment-score report.
Future expansion
Add metro and tract-level series, multi-year unemployment trends, employment-growth signals, and an industry-mix overlay.
Updates monthlyOpen source ↗Regional Economic Accounts
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
high confidencewired (fixture)GDP, personal income, and per-capita income for states, metros, and counties.
Current use
Drives the economic strength signal — MSA-level per-capita personal income, total personal income, regional GDP, and the year-over-year change for each. Surfaced on city overviews, the affordability report, and the investment-score report.
Future expansion
Add longer per-capita personal income time series, inflation-adjusted real income trend, county/metro GDP comparisons, and industry-mix breakdowns.
Updates quarterlyOpen source ↗
Affordability
HUD Data
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
high confidencefutureFair Market Rents, Income Limits, and other affordability and assisted-housing datasets.
Future expansion
Add HUD Fair Market Rents as a cross-check on ACS gross rent.
Updates annuallyOpen source ↗
Climate Risk
National Risk Index
Federal Emergency Management Agency
high confidencewired (fixture)Composite risk index for 18 natural hazards at the census-tract and county level.
Current use
Drives the climate risk signal — natural hazard risk index, expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience — mapped to each city's primary county.
Future expansion
Move from county-level mapping to census-tract resolution where NRI publishes it, and add per-hazard breakdowns (flood, hurricane, heat, wildfire).
Updates annuallyOpen source ↗NOAA Climate Data
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
high confidencefutureHistorical climate, weather, and ocean datasets including temperature, precipitation, and severe weather records.
Future expansion
Add observed temperature / precipitation trend overlays.
Updates monthlyOpen source ↗
Environment
EPA Environmental Data
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
medium confidencefutureEnvironmental information on facilities, emissions, water quality, and air quality across the U.S.
Future expansion
Add air quality and water quality context layers.
Updates monthlyOpen source ↗
Related transparency
Methodology
How public values become Housing BuildDesignHub signals.
Open Methodology →Data status
Latest ETL run, per-source freshness, and known limitations.
Open Data status →Data catalog
Source-attributed fixture datasets, computed signals, coverage, and access notes.
Open Data catalog →Changelog
Shipped, partial, and planned work — without timeline promises.
Open Changelog →Privacy and analytics
What analytics we use, and what hasn't been independently verified.
Open Privacy and analytics →