Locus Housing Supply Balance

{
  "caveats": [
    "Reported inputs and a computed ratio only. Locus performs no comparison against any published benchmark and applies no label of its own."
  ],
  "componentStatus": [
    {
      "component": "census_bps_county",
      "status": "ok"
    }
  ],
  "employment": {
    "annualAvgEmployment": 665775,
    "basis": "place of work, UI-covered employment (BLS QCEW annual averages)",
    "netChange": 12622,
    "priorAnnualAvgEmployment": 653153,
    "priorYear": 2024,
    "year": 2025
  },
  "geo": {
    "county": "Wake County",
    "countyFips": "37183",
    "state": "NC"
  },
  "kind": "housing_supply_balance",
  "note": "Awareness/diagnostic only. Full briefs are x402-paid. Agents can discover live free tools at https://api.locus.report/tools/list and paid tools, prices, and manifests at https://api.locus.report/.well-known/ai-tool/index.json.",
  "ok": true,
  "permits": {
    "imputedShare": 0.004,
    "multifamilyUnits": 5628,
    "present": true,
    "reportedTotalUnits": 15180,
    "singleFamilyUnits": 9620,
    "totalUnits": 15248,
    "year": 2024
  },
  "point": {
    "latitude": 35.780418000003195,
    "longitude": -78.63910200000142
  },
  "provenance": {
    "employment": {
      "granularity": "county, calendar-year annual average, place of work, UI-covered employment",
      "source": "U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages - annual averages, all ownerships, county total",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.bls.gov/cew/"
    },
    "housingStock": {
      "granularity": "county, 5-year estimate",
      "source": "U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year, table B25001 (total housing units)",
      "sourceUrl": "https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2023.B25001",
      "vintage": "ACSDT5Y2023"
    },
    "permits": {
      "granularity": "county aggregate, calendar year",
      "source": "U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey - annual county file (residential units authorized by building permit)",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.census.gov/construction/bps/"
    }
  },
  "publishedBenchmarks": [
    {
      "label": "NAHB stated balanced band, jobs per total housing unit permitted",
      "note": "NAHB describes this as a historical observation and does not source it further. NAHB computes at metro (MSA) level.",
      "source": "NAHB Eye on Housing, June 2026",
      "url": "https://eyeonhousing.org/2026/06/structural-demand-outpacing-supply-jobs-to-permits-ratios-highlight-housing-gap/",
      "value": "1.25 to 1.50"
    }
  ],
  "publishedCritiques": [
    {
      "source": "MPF Research / National Apartment Association, 2015, 'Job Growth-to-Absorption: Doesn't Add Up'",
      "summary": "NAA / MPF Research measured this ratio family at -161 to +130 jobs per unit of demand across 50 apartment markets over 14 years and called its reliability 'surprisingly bad'.",
      "url": "https://www.naahq.org/news-publications/units/october-2015-issue/article/job-growth-absorption-doesnt-add"
    }
  ],
  "ratios": {
    "convention": "jobs in year N divided by housing units permitted in year N-1 (NAHB convention; the one-year lag reflects the time permitted units take to move through construction)",
    "jobsPerMultifamilyUnitPermitted": 2.24,
    "jobsPerTotalUnitPermitted": 0.83
  },
  "status": "ok",
  "supplyPipeline": {
    "note": "Permits authorized, not units delivered.",
    "totalHousingUnits": 481999,
    "unitsPermittedAsShareOfStockPct": 3.163
  },
  "verifyNext": [
    {
      "step": "Read the county's full permit history in the Census Building Permits Survey.",
      "url": "https://www.census.gov/construction/bps/"
    }
  ]
}

# bash or zsh: see the payment challenge. Nothing is charged.
curl -sS -g -i -X POST 'https://api.locus.report/api/locus-housing-supply-balance' \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  --data-raw '{"address":"1 E Edenton St, Raleigh, NC 27601"}'

# x402 v2 sends the challenge base64-encoded in the PAYMENT-REQUIRED header (v1 sends it in the body).
# To read the header:
curl -sS -g -o /dev/null -D - -X POST 'https://api.locus.report/api/locus-housing-supply-balance' \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  --data-raw '{"address":"1 E Edenton St, Raleigh, NC 27601"}' \
  | grep -i '^payment-required:' | cut -d' ' -f2 | tr -d '\r' | base64 --decode

// npm i @x402/fetch @x402/evm viem
import { wrapFetchWithPayment, x402Client } from "@x402/fetch";
import { registerExactEvmScheme } from "@x402/evm/exact/client";
import { privateKeyToAccount } from "viem/accounts";

// Pays at most $0.01 per call.
const client = new x402Client().setSpendControls({ maxAmountPerPayment: "$0.01" });
registerExactEvmScheme(client, { signer: privateKeyToAccount(process.env.EVM_PRIVATE_KEY) });
const pay = wrapFetchWithPayment(fetch, client);

// Not sure it's safe to pay? ToolVet checks it first for $0.005. Pay for that from a separate
// client: this one is capped at $0.01 per payment. GET https://toolvet.app/api/v1/check?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.locus.report%2Fapi%2Flocus-housing-supply-balance&method=POST
const res = await pay("https://api.locus.report/api/locus-housing-supply-balance", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "content-type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    "address": "1 E Edenton St, Raleigh, NC 27601"
  }),
});
console.log(res.status, await res.text());

# pip install "x402[requests,evm]"
import os
from eth_account import Account
from x402 import x402ClientSync
from x402.http.clients import x402_requests
from x402.mechanisms.evm import EthAccountSigner
from x402.mechanisms.evm.exact.register import register_exact_evm_client

# Pays at most $0.01 per call.
client = x402ClientSync().set_spend_controls({"max_amount_per_payment": "$0.01"})
register_exact_evm_client(client, EthAccountSigner(Account.from_key(os.environ["EVM_PRIVATE_KEY"])))

with x402_requests(client) as session:
    res = session.post(
        "https://api.locus.report/api/locus-housing-supply-balance",
        json={
            "address": "1 E Edenton St, Raleigh, NC 27601",
        },
    )
    print(res.status_code, res.text)