Trust & data

Sources and citations

Every source used by the public cost records and every verified index series in one place.

Baseline source registry

SourceGeographyRetrievedLimitation
U.S. Department of Energy: National Residential Efficiency Measures DatabaseUnited States2026-08-14Efficiency-measure costs are national reference inputs and do not represent contractor quotes.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: May 2025 OEWSUnited States2026-08-14Employee wages exclude contractor overhead, benefits, profit, and project-specific scarcity.
U.S. Census Bureau: Value of Construction Put in PlaceUnited States2026-08-14Broad construction spending is used only as a direction and plausibility check.
FRED: Net Inputs to Construction Industries, GoodsUnited States2026-08-15Tracks construction-industry goods-input direction, not a retail project price.
FRED: Lumber and construction materials merchant wholesalers PPIUnited States2026-08-14Tracks wholesale material prices and does not include installation.
Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies: Remodeling FuturesUnited States2026-08-14Market-level remodeling research is used for corroboration, not line-item pricing.
HomeCostTotals default-scenario convention v1United States2026-08-15A user-editable starting scenario, not a market statistic.
HomeCostTotals locked legacy baseline record v1United States2026-08-15Records the base-period number used by the model. Supporting public sources establish context and trend direction but do not publish the exact line-item value.
HomeCostTotals planning-range convention v1United States2026-08-15A disclosed planning-spread assumption, not a survey percentile or contractor quote distribution.

Verified series

PCU423300423300: Producer Price Index by Industry: Lumber and Other Construction Materials Merchant Wholesalers (PCU423300423300); latest 2026-07-01, delta 9.25%.

CES2000000003: Average Hourly Earnings of All Employees, Construction (CES2000000003); latest 2026-07-01, delta 2.29%.

WPUIP2300001: Producer Price Index by Commodity: Inputs to Industries: Net Inputs to Construction Industries, Goods (WPUIP2300001); latest 2026-07-01, delta 6.78%.