How we get each number

The rules

1. No invented numbers. Every figure comes from a named source file. If we don't have a number, the page shows a dash or says so; we never estimate to fill a gap.
2. Credit the agency that publishes it. Rates are credited to the U.S. Treasury and Freddie Mac, jobs to BLS and the Census Bureau, and so on. FRED (St. Louis Fed) is used for long history and as a cross-check, not as the credit.
3. Every number is dated. Each chart says what period its data runs through, and the bar at the top of each page shows the newest period from each source and when we last checked it.
4. Partial years stay off the charts. A year in progress is stated in the note ("2026 so far") and never charted beside full years.
5. Blank means withheld, not zero. Agencies suppress some cells to protect a single employer or a small sample. We show those as "—".
6. Organizations, not people. On permits, agendas and filings we name a company, church, school district or government body, but never a private individual. The build fails if any name on our watch list appears anywhere on the site.
7. Charts must reach their headline. The build also fails if a chart ends on an earlier date than the number printed above it.
8. Labels follow published rules. Heating, Steady and Cooling on the Conditions strip and the Growth Radar come from one fixed formula, printed on those pages. The labels describe places, never individual properties, and they are not forecasts.
9. Corrections are public. When a published number was wrong, we fix it and log it on the corrections page.
10. Commentary, not advice. Nothing here is investment, legal or tax advice.

How the data moves

Our research partner pulls each source on its own schedule (daily for rates and meetings, weekly for most local records, monthly or quarterly for agency releases) and records the source address, the period covered and the time it was fetched for every value. Each delivery is checked before it is loaded. The site is rebuilt every day, and every number is also available as free JSON through the data API.

Figures marked as derived (a 12-month total, a change from a year earlier, a share) are computed from the source values on the same page, and their notes say so.