Open data · Q3 2026 edition · CC BY 4.0
JOLT Jobsite Demand Index.
Where construction is starting, state by state: Census housing permits, their change on a year earlier and data centers, ranked each quarter. CSV and JSON.
- Quarter
- July–September 2026
- Published
- November 4, 2026
- Ranked
- 50 states + DC
- Metro areas
- 50
Q3 2026: where construction is starting
The JOLT Jobsite Demand Index ranks the 50 states and DC by the housing units their permit offices authorized in July–September 2026, the change on July–September 2025, and the data centers under construction or announced. Edition published from Census Bureau permit files.
- Virginia ranks first on the index for Q3 2026, with a score of 91.0: 10,235 housing units permitted in July–September 2026, up 43.8% on a year earlier, and 634 data centers under construction or announced in Aterio's March 2026 count.
- Across the 50 states and DC, permits authorized 362,233 housing units in Q3 2026, up 2.4% on Q3 2025; 24 jurisdictions issued at least 2% more and 22 at least 2% fewer.
- Of the 20 states issuing the most permits, New York grew fastest after Virginia: 12,496 units, up 33.3% on Q3 2025.
- Michigan fell furthest among those 20: 5,733 units, down 18.0% on Q3 2025.
- In the five Rockies states where JOLT publishes fixed delivery prices, Utah ranks highest, 17th of 51, with 6,168 units permitted, down 11.5% on Q3 2025.
Video · 0:38 (38 s)
Where Is Construction Starting? State-by-State Index
The answer changes every quarter, so JOLT ranks every state and DC on a 0–100 score from Census housing permits, their change on a year earlier and the data-center pipeline. A high rank signals the coming months, not a forecast: permits lead groundbreaking by weeks to a few months. Every row and the arithmetic are free to download as CSV and JSON.
Read the transcript
0:00Where is construction starting?
The answer changes every quarter, so JOLT publishes it: the Jobsite Demand Index ranks every state and DC on a score from zero to one hundred.
The score blends three public measures: Census housing permits, how they changed on a year earlier, and data center projects.
0:18How should you read a state's rank?
A high rank is a signal about the coming months, not a forecast. Permits lead groundbreaking by weeks to a few months, and one big apartment permit can swing a small state.
So read the rank beside the permit count. The full ranking, with CSV and JSON downloads, is at joltrents.com.
The video's own page: Where Is Construction Starting? State-by-State Index
Key facts
- The Base 20 ft office container rents for $795 per month as of .
- Delivery to Zone A costs $450 per unit each way, with pickup prepaid on the first invoice as of .
- Standard delivery is scheduled 2–4 weeks after the reservation as of .
- Free cancellation ends 14 days before the delivery window opens as of .
Cite this page: "JOLT Jobsite Demand Index." JOLT Mobile Offices & Containers, https://joltrents.com/jobsite-demand-index/. Last updated November 4, 2026.
The ranking, state by state
Each row is one state or DC, in score order. The score runs from 0 to 100 and blends three measures, so a state can rank high on volume, on growth or on its data-center pipeline. The last column is what JOLT charges to deliver a standard container or office there, read from the same pricing engine as the delivery cost table. State names link to the page for that state.
| Rank | State | Score | Units, Q3 2026 | vs Q3 2025 | Data centers | JOLT delivery |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Virginia | 91.0 | 10,235 | up 43.8% | 634 | Project quote |
| 2 | New York | 88.5 | 12,496 | up 33.3% | 75 | Project quote |
| 3 | Texas | 85.0 | 49,342 | down 3.5% | 750 | Project quote |
| 4 | Georgia | 84.0 | 15,539 | up 4.6% | 396 | Project quote |
| 5 | California | 80.5 | 27,263 | up 6.4% | 46 | Project quote |
| 6 | North Carolina | 79.0 | 21,943 | up 4.0% | 52 | Project quote |
| 7 | Pennsylvania | 79.0 | 6,914 | up 16.6% | 220 | Project quote |
| 8 | Florida | 73.8 | 44,653 | up 7.3% | 14 | Project quote |
| 9 | Minnesota | 73.5 | 7,359 | up 16.0% | 49 | Project quote |
| 10 | Arizona | 71.5 | 9,765 | down 6.3% | 171 | Project quote |
| 11 | Indiana | 70.0 | 7,422 | down 1.1% | 92 | Project quote |
| 12 | Ohio | 68.5 | 7,817 | down 7.4% | 149 | Project quote |
| 13 | South Carolina | 68.0 | 11,690 | up 6.3% | 20 | Project quote |
| 14 | Tennessee | 64.8 | 11,780 | up 8.2% | 6 | Project quote |
| 15 | Missouri | 64.5 | 5,473 | up 14.1% | 45 | Project quote |
| 16 | Iowa | 62.5 | 3,717 | up 19.4% | 53 | Project quote |
| 17 | Utah | 59.5 | 6,168 | down 11.5% | 127 | $3,495 each way |
| 18 | Washington | 59.0 | 8,097 | down 8.6% | 29 | Project quote |
| 19 | Wisconsin | 58.7 | 6,908 | down 4.8% | 40 | Project quote |
| 20 | Kansas | 58.3 | 4,253 | up 82.5% | 12 | Project quote |
| 21 | Illinois | 56.5 | 4,983 | down 12.8% | 172 | Project quote |
| 22 | Nevada | 56.5 | 3,313 | up 5.7% | 104 | Project quote |
| 23 | New Mexico | 56.5 | 2,181 | up 29.5% | 57 | Project quote |
| 24 | Idaho | 56.3 | 5,426 | up 27.0% | 8 | $3,495 each way |
| 25 | Alabama | 55.0 | 4,849 | up 0.1% | 44 | Project quote |
| 26 | Kentucky | 51.0 | 4,219 | up 1.5% | 36 | Project quote |
| 27 | Nebraska | 50.5 | 3,171 | up 30.0% | 13 | Project quote |
| 28 | Colorado | 50.0 | 6,589 | down 11.4% | 16 | $450–$1,325 each way |
| 29 | Oklahoma | 47.0 | 3,590 | down 3.9% | 43 | Project quote |
| 30 | Michigan | 45.2 | 5,733 | down 18.0% | 22 | Project quote |
| 31 | Massachusetts | 44.5 | 4,176 | up 16.4% | 0 | Project quote |
| 32 | New Jersey | 43.3 | 6,401 | down 16.1% | 8 | Project quote |
| 33 | Maine | 42.0 | 2,126 | up 31.5% | 7 | Project quote |
| 34 | Mississippi | 40.8 | 2,029 | up 1.6% | 40 | Project quote |
| 35 | North Dakota | 38.3 | 1,124 | up 34.3% | 12 | Project quote |
| 36 | Maryland | 37.8 | 2,751 | down 1.4% | 22 | Project quote |
| 37 | Oregon | 37.5 | 3,091 | down 21.3% | 47 | Project quote |
| 38 | South Dakota | 37.2 | 2,021 | up 23.9% | 6 | Project quote |
| 39 | Louisiana | 34.5 | 3,151 | down 17.6% | 27 | Project quote |
| 40 | Delaware | 31.5 | 1,710 | up 9.6% | 3 | Project quote |
| 41 | Arkansas | 26.8 | 2,759 | down 37.0% | 14 | Project quote |
| 42 | Rhode Island | 25.5 | 557 | up 17.8% | 0 | Project quote |
| 43 | Wyoming | 25.3 | 481 | down 3.0% | 33 | $3,495 each way |
| 44 | Hawaii | 24.0 | 854 | up 10.6% | 0 | Project quote |
| 45 | West Virginia | 22.5 | 918 | down 21.1% | 39 | Project quote |
| 46 | Montana | 21.5 | 1,592 | down 14.5% | 11 | $3,495 each way |
| 47 | Connecticut | 21.3 | 1,137 | down 53.9% | 33 | Project quote |
| 48 | New Hampshire | 19.0 | 1,296 | down 5.4% | 0 | Project quote |
| 49 | District of Columbia | 6.0 | 541 | down 32.5% | 0 | Project quote |
| 50 | Alaska | 4.5 | 194 | down 20.2% | Not listed | Project quote |
| 51 | Vermont | 2.5 | 436 | down 58.8% | 0 | Project quote |
Across the 50 states and DC: 362,233 housing units permitted in July–September 2026, up 2.4% on Q3 2025. The JOLT 20 ft office rents for $795 a month in every state; delivery is the column above, current as of the Price Book.
A high rank is a signal about the coming months, not a forecast. Permits lead groundbreaking by weeks to a few months, and a large multifamily permit can swing a small state's total in a single month. Read the rank together with the units column before drawing a conclusion about one state.
How the score is built
The index uses public data only and publishes the arithmetic, so anyone can rebuild a score from the downloads.
- Score (0–100) = 50% the state's percentile on housing units permitted in July–September 2026, 25% its percentile on the change against July–September 2025, and 25% its percentile on data centers under construction or announced. Percentiles rank the 50 states and DC; ties share the average.
- Permits are the Census Building Permits Survey monthly state files as first published (imputed estimates, every structure size), summed over the quarter. Later Census revisions are not applied, and the year-earlier quarter is read from its own first-published files, so both sides are measured the same way.
- Data centers are Aterio's March 2026 state counts as Visual Capitalist published them; Alaska is not in that source and counts zero.
- A change inside ±2% reads as flat. Housing permits measure where homes are about to be built, not commercial or public work; national construction spending is printed beside the index for context and is not scored.
Sources
- Building Permits Survey, monthly state files, U.S. Census Bureau: July–September 2026 and July–September 2025; January–September 2026 year to date (retrieved 2026-11-04).
- Building Permits Survey, monthly metropolitan files, U.S. Census Bureau: July–September 2026 and July–September 2025, metropolitan statistical areas (retrieved 2026-11-04).
- Monthly Construction Spending, U.S. Census Bureau: September 2026, released 2026-11-02.
- Ranked: The U.S. States Building the Most Data Centers, Visual Capitalist (Aterio data): March 2026, read September 16, 2026.
The weighting puts permit volume first because volume is where crews and equipment actually go. Growth gets a quarter of the weight so a market that is turning up shows before it is large, and the data-center pipeline gets a quarter because those campuses run for years and pull trades from across a region. Percentile ranks keep any one measure from swamping the others.
The metro areas issuing the most permits
States hide a lot. The list below ranks the metropolitan areas by housing units permitted in the same quarter, using the Census metro files and the current metro definitions. A metro that crosses a state line lists every state in its name.
| Rank | Metro area | Units, Q3 2026 | vs Q3 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | 14,604 | down 8.4% |
| 2 | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | 13,908 | up 20.7% |
| 3 | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | 13,702 | down 9.2% |
| 4 | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 8,514 | up 27.3% |
| 5 | Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | 8,463 | up 1.4% |
| 6 | Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ | 7,431 | down 7.5% |
| 7 | Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | 5,953 | up 11.3% |
| 8 | Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 5,532 | up 13.9% |
| 9 | Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL | 5,054 | down 12.2% |
| 10 | Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN | 4,638 | down 9.0% |
| 11 | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | 4,540 | up 10.9% |
| 12 | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | 4,418 | down 4.9% |
| 13 | Kansas City, MO-KS | 4,224 | up 96.0% |
| 14 | Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC | 4,134 | down 12.7% |
| 15 | Raleigh-Cary, NC | 3,905 | down 22.7% |
| 16 | San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | 3,624 | up 183.3% |
| 17 | North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL | 3,552 | down 7.5% |
| 18 | Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 3,468 | up 39.6% |
| 19 | Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | 3,442 | down 13.6% |
| 20 | Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN | 3,427 | up 10.4% |
| 21 | Jacksonville, FL | 3,425 | down 10.8% |
| 22 | Columbus, OH | 3,405 | down 3.0% |
| 23 | Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | 3,367 | up 11.5% |
| 24 | Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL | 3,142 | up 0.7% |
| 25 | Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO | 2,999 | down 18.5% |
| 26 | Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | 2,909 | down 17.2% |
| 27 | San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX | 2,887 | up 24.4% |
| 28 | Boise City, ID | 2,754 | up 25.0% |
| 29 | Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA | 2,573 | up 15.8% |
| 30 | Port St. Lucie, FL | 2,423 | up 172.6% |
| 31 | Salt Lake City-Murray, UT | 2,423 | up 25.9% |
| 32 | Durham-Chapel Hill, NC | 2,418 | up 114.4% |
| 33 | Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC | 2,270 | up 24.2% |
| 34 | Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV | 2,232 | down 4.9% |
| 35 | Oklahoma City, OK | 2,161 | up 7.5% |
| 36 | Omaha, NE-IA | 2,143 | up 24.2% |
| 37 | Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA | 2,056 | up 20.1% |
| 38 | Knoxville, TN | 1,960 | up 4.4% |
| 39 | Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | 1,944 | down 35.8% |
| 40 | Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL | 1,876 | up 6.6% |
| 41 | St. Louis, MO-IL | 1,761 | up 7.4% |
| 42 | Memphis, TN-MS-AR | 1,738 | up 113.0% |
| 43 | Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN | 1,686 | down 20.2% |
| 44 | Greensboro-High Point, NC | 1,615 | up 28.3% |
| 45 | Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA | 1,613 | up 60.5% |
| 46 | Pittsburgh, PA | 1,568 | up 26.3% |
| 47 | Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC | 1,566 | down 9.9% |
| 48 | McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX | 1,433 | down 13.2% |
| 49 | Louisville-Jefferson County, KY-IN | 1,386 | down 31.7% |
| 50 | Spartanburg, SC | 1,358 | up 62.8% |
National construction spending
Permits cover housing only. For the whole construction economy, including commercial, industrial and public work, the Census monthly spending release is the national measure. It is printed here for context and does not enter any state's score.
Census put total construction spending for September 2026 at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2,186.1 billion, 2.7% below a year earlier. Private residential work ran at $848.8 billion, private nonresidential at $790.6 billion and public construction at $546.8 billion (release of ).
What the index does not measure
The permit counts are first-published estimates. Census revises them later, and the index keeps the figures as first published on both sides of the comparison so the change is measured the same way each quarter. Permits record intent to build; some permitted units start late and a few never start. The data-center counts are a dated third-party snapshot and change only when the source is read again. JOLT's own reservations are not part of the score.
Download the data
Download the Q3 2026 edition
- jobsite-demand-index-2026-q3.csv51 rows and the national line: score, rank, permits, the change, data centers, and JOLT's rent and delivery.
- jobsite-demand-index-2026-q3-metros.csvThe 50 metro areas with the most units permitted.
- jobsite-demand-index-2026-q3.jsonEverything above in one file, with the method, the sources and the headline figures.
The newest edition's state file is always at jobsite-demand-index.csv. Free to quote and republish under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page.
The files carry the quarter on every row. The state file adds JOLT's current rent and delivery columns, dated by the Price Book, so a reader can set demand beside cost in one sheet.
Cite the index
Cite this index
JOLT Jobsite Demand Index, Q3 2026 edition, JOLT Mobile Offices & Containers, https://joltrents.com/jobsite-demand-index/, published 2026-11-04. Source data: U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey; Aterio data-center counts via Visual Capitalist.
Quote a figure with its state, the quarter (Q3 2026) and a link to this page. Each edition stays at its own address, so a citation never changes under the reader.
Every edition
A new edition is published each quarter. Earlier editions stay online at their own addresses with their own files.
- Q3 2026 (this page), published , the newest edition.
How we built this: the index figures are computed from the dated Census and data-center files stored with the site, by a script anyone can rerun, and the build refuses a headline that no longer matches the CSV. JOLT's rent and delivery columns come from the catalog at build time. Written and reviewed by Lisa Tanner.
Last updated .
Questions contractors ask
What does the JOLT Jobsite Demand Index measure?
It ranks the 50 states and Washington, DC by where construction is about to start. Half the score is the number of housing units each state's permit offices authorized in the quarter, a quarter is the change in that number against the same quarter a year earlier, and a quarter is the count of data centers under construction or announced.
Where does the data come from?
Housing permits come from the Census Bureau's Building Permits Survey, read from the monthly state and metro files as Census first publishes them. Data-center counts come from Aterio's state list as Visual Capitalist published it. National construction spending comes from the Census monthly release and is printed for context, not scored.
How often is the index updated?
Once a quarter, after Census publishes the permit files for the quarter's third month, usually late in the following month. Each edition keeps its own page and its own files, so a figure quoted from an earlier quarter stays where the reader found it.
Why use housing permits to measure jobsite demand?
A permit is the first public record that a building is about to go up, and every one of those sites needs storage, an office or fencing for months before anyone moves in. Permits are published for every state every month on the same definitions, which no commercial construction series offers for free.
Does the index include commercial and public construction?
Only through the data-center measure. The permit series covers new privately owned housing. Commercial, industrial and public projects are reported nationally in the construction-spending release, which the page prints beside the ranking, but Census does not publish those by state each month.
Can I republish the index?
Yes, under CC BY 4.0 with a link to the page. Name the quarter with any figure you quote. The CSV and JSON files carry the quarter on every row, and the citation block on the page gives the full credit line.
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