Methodology: Typical (median) recorded building payment
Every figure carrying this label on a county page is computed exactly as described below, from public government data. Nothing is estimated or editorialized.
| What it measures | recorded building payments |
|---|---|
| Unit | USD |
| Source dataset | FEMA — OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v2 |
| Data version / accessed | through 2026-05 (cube build 2026-07-21b, generated 2026-07-21) |
| Exact source fields | dateOfLoss, amountPaidOnBuildingClaim, countyCode |
| Formula | median(paid_building WHERE paid_building>0) per county per REGISTERED WINDOW, computed from facts (never from monthly aggregates) |
| Predicates / filters | the MEDIAN (p50, nearest-rank) of amountPaidOnBuildingClaim over claims with a building payment > 0 whose DATE OF LOSS falls in the trailing 60 months ending at the last complete NFIP month. Nearest-rank definition: the value at sorted index ceil(q*n)-1. |
| Date semantics | loss months within window ending at complete_through |
| Window boundaries | trailing 60 months of dates of loss ending 2026-05 (last complete NFIP month) |
| Rounding | displayed to the nearest $100 |
| Suppression rule | tile hidden below n=20 paid claims in the window |
| Minimum sample (min_n) | 20 |
| Geography | US county (FIPS) |
Internal build query
This query runs against our internal data cube (private cube_*/fct_* tables built from the public sources below). It is exact but not runnable by a reader — use the public reproduction recipe that follows.
-- p50 nearest-rank over the trailing-60m window
SELECT p50 FROM cube_county_window_paid
WHERE county_fips = :fips AND window = 'trailing_60m';Reproduce from the public source
This recomputes the figure from the raw public dataset. Public data is live and may run ahead of our snapshot (see the data version above); numbers can differ by rows added since our ingest vintage.
OpenFEMA FimaNfipClaims v2 — fema.gov/api/open/v2:
$filter = countyCode eq '<fips>' and dateOfLoss ge '<end-60-months>'
and dateOfLoss lt '<end+1-month>' and amountPaidOnBuildingClaim gt 0
$select = amountPaidOnBuildingClaim
Sort ascending; p50 = value at index ceil(0.50*n)-1 (nearest-rank).Worked example: Harris County: median recorded building payment $21,785 over the trailing 5 years.
Change log
2026-07-21 (r3) — window boundaries corrected (no windowed metric reads "not windowed"); LIMIT/ordering/geography/status predicates documented; the query relabeled the internal build query and paired with a public raw-source reproduction recipe.
2026-07-21 — record published with source URL, exact fields, predicates, window boundaries, rounding, suppression, and a worked example. Prior records disclosed a formula only.
Corrections
Spotted an error? Corrections: [email protected]. We publish the fix and note it in this change log.
Independent professional (adjuster/restoration) review of the guidance built on these figures is pending and blocks release (D2). This record documents the data method only; it is not insurance, legal, or engineering advice.