Data Sources and Source Rights

Approved source classes

Only sources in the following seven categories are eligible for use in the pricing engine. Each source must also pass the rights gate described below before any data is ingested.

1. 1.
   Licensed construction cost dataCommercial databases that license unit cost data for residential and commercial construction trades. Examples include RSMeans and similar services. License terms must explicitly permit the type of public display we use.
2. 2.
   Atlanta BLS occupational wagesLabor rate data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, filtered to the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell metropolitan statistical area.
3. 3.
   BLS Producer Price IndexMaterials cost inflation data from the BLS PPI, used to keep material cost variables current between annual licensed database updates.
4. 4.
   Permit and fee schedulesOfficial permit fee tables published by the City of Atlanta, Fulton County, DeKalb County, Gwinnett County, and other Atlanta-area jurisdictions. These are public records and are used as-published.
5. 5.
   Supplier or retailer feedsMaterial cost data from licensed product feeds or publicly listed retail prices from suppliers operating in the Atlanta market. Terms of use must permit the aggregation and display we perform.
6. 6.
   First-party Atlanta quotesQuotes contributed directly by Atlanta residents through this service. Contributions are voluntary, anonymized before storage, and handled under the quote contribution rules described below.
7. 7.
   Professional validationCost estimates reviewed and signed off by licensed Atlanta-area contractors or trade professionals. Validation records the professional's license number and the scope reviewed.

Source rights gate

Before any source is connected to the pricing engine, we document all of the following:

• Source owner and contact
• URL or API endpoint
• License or terms of service (full text retained)
• Permitted storage method and duration
• Permitted transformations (aggregation, rounding, indexing)
• Permitted public display format
• Required refresh frequency
• Attribution requirement and display format
• Termination behavior: what happens to data already ingested if the license ends

Any source that cannot satisfy all items on this list is not used. The planned live system keeps this review record with each source.

Current benchmark status

No licensed source feed or verified Fair Price Atlanta quote dataset has been connected yet. Current ranges are public benchmark previews checked against 2026 public price guides where available, then converted into deterministic formulas. They are useful for early planning, but they are not yet verified market pricing.

This page will list each approved licensed source, its coverage, and its last successful refresh as connections are established. The public benchmark references below are not licensed feeds and are not copied into the app as raw data.

Public benchmark references

Quote contributions

Atlanta residents can now prepare a de-identified quote contribution from the Share a Quote page. The current version opens a structured email for manual review before any quote influences a price range.

Before any contribution enters the dataset, it must go through these steps:

• Personally identifiable information is stripped or redacted
• The quote is parsed for scope, line items, and total price
• Anomaly detection flags any entry that falls outside plausible ranges for human review
• Approved entries are weighted by recency, completeness, and scope clarity before influencing the dataset

Users will be told how a contribution will be used and must give explicit consent before any data is stored.

What we will never do

• Scrape data from other websites without explicit licensed permission
• Copy or republish pricing data from competitor services
• Use prices invented or estimated by a language model as formula inputs
• Redistribute licensed data in a form that violates source terms
• Retain contractor-identifying information from quote contributions without consent