Business View - February 2015 23
dex, to identifying those areas that are now approaching
and exceeding their previous normal levels of economic
and housing activity.
More than 350 metro areas are scored by taking their av-
erage permit, price and employment levels for the past 12
months and dividing each by their annual average over the
last period of normal growth. For single-family permits and
home prices, 2000-2003 is used as the last normal period,
and for employment, 2007 is the base comparison. The
three components are then averaged to provide an overall
score for each market; a national score is calculated based
on national measures of the three metrics. An index value
above one indicates that a market has advanced beyond its
previous normal level of economic activity.
CONSTRUCTION
