Home-service cost trends: what prices actually did
Most “costs are rising” stories cite surveys. We trace the real public record: the median declared construction value homeowners and contractors filed with the city, year by year, 2018–2025.
ProFix publishes 53 permit-value trend series across 12 metros for 2018–2025, with every year shown clearing the 30-permit minimum.
Data through 2018–2025last verified
National trend by trade (2018–2025)
Each series pools a fixed panelof metros present in every year — so the trend can't be an artifact of new cities entering the data. Panel size shown per row.
Biggest movers by metro
One fixed city, its own permits, 2018–2025. The only drift here is real — that city's prices and project mix.
| Trade | Metro | 2018 | Latest | Change | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electrician | Burlington, VT | $1,500 '18 | $3,840 '25 | up +156% | |
| Electrician | Las Vegas, NV | $985 '18 | $2,500 '25 | up +154% | |
| Plumber | Lynchburg, VA | $1,968 '18 | $4,500 '25 | up +129% | |
| Electrician | Durham, NC | $5,300 '18 | $11,035 '25 | up +108% | |
| HVAC Technician | Boulder, CO | $4,364 '18 | $8,794 '25 | up +102% | |
| Fence Contractor | Boulder, CO | $5,000 '18 | $10,000 '24 | up +100% | |
| Electrician | Lynchburg, VA | $1,375 '18 | $2,500 '25 | up +82% | |
| Fire Protection Contractor | Kansas City, MO | $10,000 '20 | $18,000 '25 | up +80% | |
| Plumber | Kansas City, MO | $2,200 '20 | $3,800 '25 | up +73% | |
| Plumber | Cary, NC | $3,400 '19 | $5,770 '25 | up +70% | |
| Electrician | Cary, NC | $1,200 '19 | $2,000 '25 | up +67% | |
| Gas Technician | Burlington, VT | $3,600 '18 | $6,000 '25 | up +67% |
Coverage & method
53 trend series (5 national, 12 metros). Metros with their own trend lines:
- Burlington, VT (13) · browse Burlington pros
- Kansas City, MO (6) · browse Kansas City pros
- Boulder, CO (5) · browse Boulder pros
- Miami, FL (4) · browse Miami pros
- Cary, NC (3) · browse Cary pros
- Greensboro, NC (3) · browse Greensboro pros
- Las Vegas, NV (3) · browse Las Vegas pros
- Lynchburg, VA (3) · browse Lynchburg pros
- Orlando, FL (3) · browse Orlando pros
- Boise, ID (2) · browse Boise pros
- Durham, NC (2) · browse Durham pros
- Albuquerque, NM (1) · browse Albuquerque pros
How it's computed. Median declared construction value by permit filing year, 2018–2025. Metro series track one fixed jurisdiction; the national series pools a fixed panel of metros present in every year, so neither can be an artifact of the dataset's coverage changing over time. A declared-value median moves with both price and the mix of projects filed each year — it is not a pure price index. Each year shown clears the 30-permit minimum. To keep every series an honest price signal we drop any whose median more than triples or falls below a third across the window (a project-mix or permit-definition shift, not price), and we publish general-contractor only at the pooled national level, never per-metro, since one city's GC median swings with project size, not price.
Updated 2026-06-17. Reuse freely with attribution to ProFix Directory (CC BY 4.0). A declared-value median is a public-record proxy for project cost and moves with both price and project mix; it is not a cost-of-living or pure price index.