I have mentioned the Weldon Cooper Center as a resource for information many times. Here is one example of what you can do with some of the data you can find there.
Weldon Cooper Center's Building Permits Page. The following is a summary of some of the information I found:
2006 Recorded Building Permits for Single Family Units: 1) Montgomery County only = 157 with an average construction cost of $229,085.46, 2) Blacksburg = 226 with an average construction cost of $112,340.72, and 3) Christiansburg = 257 with an average construction cost of $92,946.13.
2006 Recorded Building Permits for Duplex Structures: Both Montgomery County and Blacksburg reported having none and Christiansburg show 2 being build at an average construction cost of $65,000.00
2006 Recorded Building Permits for Structures with 3-4 Units: Montgomery County and Blacksburg reported having none. Christiansburg reported 59 at an average construction cost of $86,033.12.
2006 Recorded Building Permits for Structures with 5+ Units: Montgomery County and Blacksburg reported none. Christiansburg reported 5 at an average construction cost of $50,000.00.
2006 Recorded Building Permits for All Types: 1) Montgomery County had 157 at an average construction cost of $229,085.46, 2) Blacksburg had 226 at an average construction cost of $112,340.72, and 3) Christiansburg had 323 at an average construction cost of $90,845.54.
2007 Recorded Building Permits for Single Family Units: 1) Montgomery County only = 85 with an average construction cost of $266,354.64, 2) Blacksburg = 75 at an average construction cost of $191,159.39, 3) Christiansburg = 190 with an average construction cost of $102,181.08, and 4) Radford (data not included in 2006) = 20 at an average construction cost of $131,675.00.
2007 Recorded Building Permits for Duplex Structures: None were reported for any of the 4 localities
2007 Recorded Building Permits for Structures with 3-4 Units: None wer reported for Montgomery County, Blacksburg, or Radford. Christiansburg reported 40 at an average construction cost of $85,572.85.
2007 Recorded Building Permits for Structures with 5+ Units: Montgomery County, Radford, and Christiansburg all reported none. Blacksburg reported 242 at an average construction cost of $55,610.14.
2007 Recorded Building Permits for All Structure Types: 1) Montgomery County = 85 at an average construction cost of $266,354.64, 2) Blacksburg = 317 at an average construction cost of $87,680.15, 3) Christiansburg = 230 at an average construction cost of $99,292.69, and 4) Radford = 20 at an average construction cost of $131,675.00
One thing to keep in mind is that numbers can be misleading. Each of my graduate courses in Research Design and Statistics required that I read Darrell Huff's How to Lie With Statistics. But, I only had to read it one of the times in order to get a really clear idea of how people can manipulate data to make it say whatever they want it to say. That is why I have included all of the data. If I had put up only the summary data it would look like Christiansburg was high one year and Blacksburg the next, when it is actually the construction of an apartment complex in Blacksburg that skews that data. In this case, it is the individual groupings rather than the summary data that gives you a clear picture of how growth (and the cost of structures) has evolved in Montgomery County, Blacksburg, and Christiansburg over the last 2 years. Since only 1 year's data was available for Radford, there is no real opportunity to look at those patterns over time. With the data that is available, I can not help but wonder what makes it so much more expensive to construct structures in the County and Blacksburg than in Christiansburg. That will bear some pondering and research.
In summary, there is a wealth of information available to people via the internet. If you cannot get the information you need locally, the odds are good you can find what you are looking for somewhere on the internet. It may take some time but most of it is there. Just today, I found an interesting site: The Auditor of Public Accounts that covers "State Disbursements and Transmittals for Cities, Counties and Towns in Virginia". This site will likely be a good source for some future blogs.