Monitoring just issued permits may only useful if the home owner is the one doing the work (which is often, but in large metro areas, may be a very small subset

Monitoring just issued permits may only useful if the home owner is the one doing the work (which is often, but in large metro areas, may be a very small subset of the actual permits being issued). Contractors tend to have their own suppliers for their materials. Not to mention, that often, by the time permitting process is started, much of the materials, appliances, etc. have already been chosen, so coupons only work if they're relevant to the chosen materials/appliances/etc. (Anecdotally, I'm going through this right now. The permitting process takes so long, that nearly every thing is already decided on by the time the permits are issued.) I think useful permit indicator is to look at recent past permits. Neighbors tend to be inspired by their neighbors to do long-needed projects. As soon as I started talking about doing work on my house, other neighbors started asking for the name of my contractor and started talking about how maybe they should "fix up that garage, or re-do the kitchen."