Research and data
A look under the hood at the dataset behind Home Cost USA estimates.
What data sources are behind Home Cost USA cost estimates?
The statewide labor adjustment for Texas and Florida uses two published federal datasets: Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS May 2025 state and national wages for construction occupations, and the Census Bureau 2022 Economic Census for the labor share of each trade. The national base ranges come from our published, deterministic cost model.
Last updated: September 2026. All sources are named on this page.
What we model
Seven project types today, roof replacement, HVAC replacement, bathroom remodel, kitchen remodel, interior painting, exterior painting, and window replacement, each with a national unit benchmark, quality tiers, and complexity adjustments. For Texas and Florida we also apply one statewide labor adjustment per project type, built from published federal data. It is the same factor everywhere in the state. We publish no city, metro or ZIP code price multipliers, because we have no published source that would support them. The full mechanics are on our methodology page.
Official wage data we use
Labor rates are the part of project cost with a credible public source, so we load wage figures published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics through its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program. The statewide adjustment that reaches a public estimate uses only the May 2025 state and national figures for the construction trades that match our calculators.
We also hold the earlier May 2024 release, including metropolitan area figures for Texas and Florida. Those rows are kept for internal comparison and are not used to change any published estimate. Both editions are named separately so the two are never mixed.
Wages alone cannot move a price, because materials, equipment and fees do not follow local wages. So the wage difference is applied only to the labor portion of each project type, taken from the U.S. Census Bureau 2022 Economic Census, table EC2223BASIC, as payroll plus employer benefit costs over revenue for the matching contractor industry. Nothing in between is estimated by us, and the methodology page shows the full calculation.
Anonymous estimate inputs
When someone runs a calculator or a quote check, we store the project inputs without personal details. Over time this shows us which projects homeowners are budgeting for, which sizes are typical, and where quoted amounts sit relative to our modeled ranges.
Homeowner-reported quotes
The most valuable input we can get is a real quoted amount with the project, size, and ZIP attached. We use these to challenge our own benchmarks rather than to confirm them.
What we will not publish
No fabricated survey results, no invented sample sizes, no ratings or testimonials, and no local statistic we cannot trace to a source. When our data is too thin to support a claim, we say so instead of rounding the uncertainty away.