Sources

Every figure on moldcostguide.com traces back to a public dataset. This page lists them so you can go to the source yourself. How we combine them is described on the methodology page.

Climate — NOAA / NCEI Climate Normals

Dew-point and precipitation data come from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information.

Hourly climate normals, 1991–2020 (with the 2006–2020 product as a fallback) — the source of every dew-point figure, including the hours-per-year at or above 60 °F.
Monthly climate normals, 1991–2020 — the source of annual precipitation and wettest-month figures.
Each metro is matched to its nearest reporting station.

NCEI Climate Normals: ncei.noaa.gov/products/land-based-station/us-climate-normals

Housing — U.S. Census Bureau (ACS 5-Year)

Housing age and building form come from the American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, at the metropolitan/micropolitan statistical area level.

Table B25034 — Year Structure Built (used for the pre-1980 and median-year figures).
Table B25024 — Units in Structure (detached, multifamily, mobile shares).

Census data API: census.gov/data/developers/data-sets/acs-5year.html

Wages — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS)

Local labor rates come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, by metropolitan area.

SOC 47-2061 — Construction Laborers.
SOC 47-1011 — First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades.
Micropolitan areas without a published metro wage use the statewide OEWS rate for these occupations, labeled as such in our data.

BLS OEWS: bls.gov/oes

State rules & oversight

Whether a state licenses mold assessors and remediators comes from each state’s own statutes and licensing bodies — for example the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, the New York State Department of Labor, and the Florida statutes. Each metro page links the specific regulator for its state.

Vintages and updates

Climate normals are 30-year averages updated by NOAA roughly once a decade. ACS 5-Year estimates and OEWS wages are updated annually; we refresh against the latest available vintage and stamp the cost model with a version so any change is visible. Published aggregator ranges are used only to sanity-check our output — they are never an input.

Spotted something out of date or wrong? Our Corrections page explains how to flag it.