Previo Analytics - Previo Construct
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Previo Construct

Commercial construction cost outlook and build timing. Build now, wait, or procure early?
$1,800 per year · version 0.1.0 · Windows 10 and 11 View details & buy at deselt.com Download the free trial

Previo Construct in four minutes: one owner's question, build now or wait, from the dashboard to the quarterly report. A Miami hotel; invented owner and contractor names.

What it does

  • Pick a state, a metro and a building type, and the Executive Dashboard answers from public data: market heat, the 12-month cost forecast, labor pressure, contractor availability, financing, and the recommended build window. Each tile names the number it rests on.
  • A project cost index forecast from the trades that make up the building, 3, 6, 12 and 24 months out, with a band that holds 80% of the model's own back-tested errors. Trade cost pressure, largest share of cost first.
  • The Build Window Planner: a budget in today's dollars carried along the forecast for four start dates, with market condition, forecast risk and financing at each, and the verdict written out with its reasons. Your own escalation, margin and contingency, or the model's.
  • Trade mix per project, saved owner projects, a recorded run each quarter so the next report says how the outlook moved. Compare Markets puts metros side by side; every state and 340 metro areas.
  • Report Studio writes the quarterly owner report: your company on the cover, every number traceable to its series. Present (F5) is the owner deck full screen. Excel exports every series, forecast and score input.
  • Forecast Accuracy is the honest page: rolling back-tests by model and horizon, each made only with the data known at the time. Data Sources lists every series with its vintage; the free BLS and FRED keys go in Settings.

Who it is for

  • General contractors who hand owners a quarterly market report, owners' representatives, developers and the preconstruction desks that advise them.
  • Windows desktop; the 14-day trial needs no card. Public BLS, Census and Federal Reserve data; nothing leaves your machine.

Screenshots

The Executive Dashboard: six score tiles, the 24-month cost forecast with its band, trade cost pressure bars, spending by sector and the written insights
The Executive Dashboard for a Miami hotel: six tiles, the 24-month cost forecast with its band, trade cost pressure, spending by sector, the written insights.
The Build Window Planner: project inputs, four start-date cards, the projected cost chart, key assumptions with the verdict, and the trade mix sliders
Build Window Planner: the budget along the forecast for four start dates, the projected cost by start month, key assumptions and the verdict, the trade mix.
Compare Markets: eight metros in a table with market heat, labor pressure, contractors, construction jobs, state permits and sector spending
Compare Markets: eight metros side by side, hottest first, with market heat, labor pressure, contractors, construction jobs and state permits.
The Projects page: the four-step strip, the owner projects grid, the recorded runs and the project details
Projects: the owner's saved jobs with market, type, budget, start and last run, and the runs recorded quarter by quarter.
The owner deck slide Build now, or wait? with four start options and the recommendation
The owner deck (F5): Build now, or wait? Four start options and the recommendation, full screen.
Forecast Accuracy: mean absolute error by model and horizon, and the most recent 12-month forecasts against actuals
Forecast Accuracy: 44 rolling back-tests by model and horizon, and the most recent 12-month forecasts against what the index did.

Market data through August 2026 at the time of the screens. The owner and contractor names are invented. The full description is on its page at deselt.com.

Help

The first day

  1. Refresh the data on Data Sources; the first pull takes a few minutes. Without a key the BLS allows 25 requests a day, so request the free BLS and FRED keys in Settings for daily use.
  2. Pick the market at the top of the Dashboard: state, metro, building type. The regional series load on first use.
  3. Set the project on Build Window: budget, planned start, duration; tune the trade mix; Save as new project.
  4. Write the report in Report Studio, or press F5 for the deck. Generate PDF records the run, so next quarter the report says what moved.

What the band means

Four models forecast each series: drift, seasonal naive, damped Holt-Winters and a ridge regression on lagged momentum. They are back-tested at every origin, every three months, with only the data known then, and weighted by their errors. The band on every chart is the 80th percentile of those past errors at each horizon, so it widens with the horizon.

Where a series stands in

The BLS publishes no drywall contractor index and no hotel building index; the gypsum products index and the office building index stand in, and the notes on screen and in the report say so. Every proxy is named where it is used.

The scores

Market heat, labor pressure, contractor availability and financing are percentiles of each signal within its own history since 2006, so 50 is a typical year. Red works against the owner, green for. The decision score on the Build Window is comparative: 100 is the lowest decision cost among the start options, projected cost plus carry, a market capacity premium and a volatility allowance.

Keys and data

Both publisher keys are free. BLS emails the key after registration; FRED needs an account first, then the key while signed in. Keys are stored encrypted for your Windows user and never written to the database or a report. Values keep their vintage, so a report can be reproduced later.

Requirements

Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit, an internet connection for the data refresh. A licence key from deselt.com, or the 14-day trial.