With the January 2022 data month, the monthly Building Permits Survey design has changed from a representative sample to a cut-off sample. This change allows complete local and county data on new housing units authorized by permits to be published monthly going forward. Initial summary level estimates were first released with the New Residential Construction release on February 17, 2022. Complete local, County and State estimates were released on February 24, 2022.
Beginning with the January 2022 data, the Building Permits Survey uses a cut-off sample design. The cut-off sample includes all jurisdictions in the current target universe, like the annual Building Permits Survey. Monthly collection will be attempted on jurisdictions that issue more than an average of 5 new unit authorizations between 2018-2020. Jurisdictions that issue fewer than 6 new authorizations on average, will be imputed monthly and included in local and aggregate estimates. This results in approximately 8,600 jurisdictions where monthly collection will be attempted and 11,400 jurisdictions where monthly collection would not be attempted. Any jurisdiction where monthly data is not received or where monthly collection is not attempted would continue to be asked to report annually.
Since all jurisdictions in the target universe will be published monthly, all monthly estimates will be complete. Specifically, the local, metropolitan, and county estimates will now provide complete monthly coverage.
For additional details on the new methodology and its impact on New Residential Construction, see
https://www.census.gov/construction/pdf/bps_2022_faqs.pdf
