About Cost by Town

Cost by Town is an independent reference that prices six common home projects (roof, siding, deck, fence, driveway and heat pump) for New Hampshire towns. It starts from installed prices published in public cost guides, adjusts the labor part with Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data for the town's county, and reads permit fees from each town's own fee schedule. It does not sell, quote or perform any work.

How the site works

Installed prices per unit come from public cost guides that state their figures (mostly HomeGuide), quoted word for word. The labor part of each price is scaled by the median wage of the trade in the town's Bureau of Labor Statistics wage area, and permit fees are read from each town's own published fee schedule. The methodology page lists every source, formula and the date it was checked.

New Hampshire comes first because its towns publish their fee schedules and its five wage areas are small enough to be meaningful. Other New England states may follow once their town schedules have been read the same way.

Corrections

If a figure is wrong or a source has changed, email hello@costbytown.com with the page and a link. Corrections go into the data file and the check date updates with the next build.

Data version 2026-10-20.