NONRESIDENTIAL BUILDING PERMITS SURVEY DOCUMENTATION - STATE DISKETTE State Estimates for Permit Authorized Nonresidential Construction ASCII Delimited File on Floppy Diskette Introduction For the years 1980-1994 and the months from January 1988 through December 1995, these files provide building permit statistics on new residential and nonresidential construction; additions, alterations and conversions; and demolitions. These are provided for the 50 states and the District of Columbia sorted by FIPS State code, followed by aggregate totals for divisions, regions and the United States total. File Format A. Two files are provided for the monthly data series and one for annual series: 1. Current month - data tabulated for only that survey period. File Name - ST.CM, where "YYMM" is the survey date, i.e. ST9405.CM 2. Year-to-Date Monthly - summed data from the beginning of the year through the current survey month including late reports and corrections. File Name - ST.YTD, where "YYMM" is the survey date, i.e. ST9405.YTD 3. Annual - data tabulated for that survey year: File Name - ST, where "YY" is the year, i.e. ST93 B. Each file is an ASCII, comma delimited file, providing: 1. Survey date, in the form "YYMM" (annual files show a date of "YY99"). 2. Two-digit FIPS state code. 3. One-digit Census region code. 4. One-digit Census division code. 5. Alpha state name. 6. Buildings, Units and Valuation Permit Data (valuation is shown in thousands of dollars.) C. Two sets of data are shown for each type of construction: 1. Estimates with Imputation - includes reported data for monthly respondents and imputed data for nonrespondents. 2. Reported Only - includes only reported data for respondents. Source of Data Statistics on construction authorized by building permits are based upon reports submitted by local building permit officials in response to a mail survey. They are obtained using Form C-404, "Report of Building or Zoning Permits Issued and Local Public Construction." When a report is not received, missing residential data are either (1) obtained from the Survey of Use of Permits (SUP) or (2) imputed. All other missing data are imputed. The SUP is used to collect information on housing starts. Data from the SUP are available only for about 850 places for which Census Bureau interviewers list and sample the permits that authorized construction of new residential structures. For places not in the SUP, imputations are used. The imputations are based on the assumption that the ratio of current month authorizations to those of a year ago should be the same for both respondents and nonrespondents. When imputing annual statistics, the ratio is based on current year authorizations to those of a year ago. Monthly Building Permits Statistics The monthly statistics are based on data from a sample of 8,500 permit-issuing places, selected from a universe of approximately 19,000 places. All places in 99 designated metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) and primary metropolitan statistical areas (PMSAs) were selected with certainty. The remaining places were stratified by state into two strata based on the number of housing units authorized in 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1992. In each state, all places that authorized housing units during that period greater than or equal to a predetermined number of units were selected with certainty. The other places were selected at the rate of 1 in 10. Annual Building Permits Statistics The annual statistics are not based upon a sample, but are obtained by directly cumulating the data for the 19,000 permit-issuing places. Although these statistics are not subject to sampling variability, they are subject to various response and operational errors which can be attributed to many sources: inability to obtain information about all cases, differences in interpretation of questions, inability or unwillingness of respondents to provide correct information, and errors made in processing the data. Explicit measures of the effects of these errors are not available. However, most of the important operational errors were detected and corrected in the course of the Bureau's review of the data for reasonableness and consistency. Sampling Variability The monthly estimates are based on samples and may differ from statistics which would have been obtained from a complete census using the same survey questionnaire and procedures. An estimate based on a sample survey is subject to both sampling error and nonsampling error. The accuracy of a survey result is determined by the joint effect of these errors. Sampling error reflects the fact that only a particular sample was surveyed rather than the entire population. Estimates of size of the sampling errors are provided by the standard error of the estimates. Nonsampling errors can be attributed to many sources: inability to obtain information about all cases in the sample; definitional difficulties; differences in interpretation of questions; inability or unwillingness of respondents to provide correct information; and errors made in processing data. As derived for this report, the estimated relative standard errors include part of the effect of nonsampling errors but do not measure any systematic biases in the data. The particular sample selected for the Building Permits Survey is one of a large number of similar probability samples that, by chance, might have been selected using the same sample design. Each of the possible samples would probably yield somewhat different results. The standard error of a survey estimate is a measure of the variation of all possible sample estimates around the theoretical, complete coverage value. The relative standard error is defined as the standard error divided by the value being estimated. Geographic Coverage of Building Permit Jurisdiction Most of the permit-issuing jurisdictions are municipalities; the remainder are counties, townships, or unincorporated towns. For the municipalities, and townships or towns, the area subject to building permit requirements to which the figures pertain is normally that of the governmental jurisdictions. A small number of municipalities have authority to issue building or zoning permits for areas extending beyond their corporate limits. In such cases, the data relate to the entire area within which the permit-issuing authority is exercised. Similarly, a small number of townships issue permits for only a part of the township and the data normally covers only the area subject to the township's permit system. Limitations of Data The portion of construction measurable from building permit records is inherently limited since such records obviously do not reflect construction activity outside of the area subject to local permit requirements. For the nation as a whole, less than 5 percent of all privately owned housing units built are constructed in areas that do not require building permits. The reported statistics are also influenced by the following factors: 1. Some building permit jurisdictions close their books a few days before the end of the month/year, so that the time reference for permits is not, in all cases, strictly the calendar month/year. 2. A study spanning 4 years showed that about 3 percent of the single-family houses built in permit-issuing places are built without a permit. To the extent that most of these limiting factors apply rather consistently over an extended period, they may not seriously impair the usefulness of building permit statistics as prompt indicators of trends in residential construction activity. Questions should be directed to Manufacturing Construction Division, Bureau of the Census, Washington, D.C. 20233-6900. Phone: (301) 457-1321. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Record Layout of Building Permits ASCII Customer Data File Field Description Section 1 Survey Date; YYMM. "YY" are the last two digits of the year and "MM" is the month (annual is 99), i.e. July 1988 = 8807, Annual 1987 = 8799. 2 FIPS State code Identification 3 Census region code (1-4) 4 Census division code (1-9) 5 Alpha Geographic Name 6 101-Buildings 7 101-Units 8 101-Valuation 9 103-Buildings 10 103-Units 11 103-Valuation 12 104-Buildings 13 104-Units 14 104-Valuation 15 105-Buildings 16 105-Units 17 105-Valuation 18 213-Buildings 19 213-Units 20 213-Valuation Estimates 21 214-Buildings With 22 214-Units Imputation 23 214-Valuation 24 318-Buildings 25 318-Valuation 26 319-Buildings 27 319-Valuation 28 320-Buildings 29 320-Valuation 30 321-Buildings 31 321-Valuation 32 322-Buildings 33 322-Valuation 34 323-Buildings 35 323-Valuation 36 324-Buildings 37 324-Valuation 38 325-Buildings 39 325-Valuation 40 326-Buildings 41 326-Valuation 42 327-Buildings 43 327-Valuation 44 328-Buildings 45 328-Valuation 46 329-Buildings 47 329-Valuation 48 434-Buildings 49 434-Valuation 50 437-Buildings 51 437-Valuation 52 438-Buildings 53 438-Valuation 54 645-Buildings 55 645-Units 56 646-Buildings 57 646-Units 58 647-Buildings 59 647-Units 60 648-Buildings 61 648-Units 62 649-Buildings 63 101-Buildings 64 101-Units 65 101-Valuation 66 103-Buildings 67 103-Units 68 103-Valuation 69 104-Buildings 70 104-Units 71 104-Valuation 72 105-Buildings Reported 73 105-Units Only 74 105-Valuation 75 213-Buildings 76 213-Units 77 213-Valuation 78 214-Buildings 79 214-Units 80 214-Valuation 81 318-Buildings 82 318-Valuation 83 319-Buildings 84 319-Valuation 85 320-Buildings 86 320-Valuation 87 321-Buildings 88 321-Valuation 89 322-Buildings 90 322-Valuation 91 323-Buildings 92 323-Valuation 93 324-Buildings 94 324-Valuation 95 325-Buildings 96 325-Valuation 97 326-Buildings 98 326-Valuation 99 327-Buildings 100 327-Valuation 101 328-Buildings 102 328-Valuation 103 329-Buildings 104 329-Valuation 105 434-Buildings 106 434-Valuation 107 437-Buildings 108 437-Valuation 109 438-Buildings 110 438-Valuation 111 645-Buildings 112 645-Units 113 646-Buildings 114 646-Units 115 647-Buildings 116 647-Units 117 648-Buildings 118 648-Units 119 649-Buildings