Home Ballpark is a set of cost calculators for U.S. homeowners. It gives you a realistic price range for a home project in your state before you call contractors, so you can tell a fair quote from a strange one.
What we do
Each calculator starts from national prices collected from public cost guides, with the publisher and date of every figure on record. We adjust those prices for your state using government wage and price data, and show a low, typical and high number with the cost lines behind them. When only a few sources cover a price, the estimate says so with a "Limited data" note instead of hiding it. The full method is on How we calculate.
Who writes the pages
The pages are written by our research team under the pen name Dale Hollis. Dale isn't a real person and isn't a contractor. The name is a byline for the team, the way some newspapers sign a regular column. Nothing on the site claims trade experience, and no page describes jobs we did, crews we run or projects we quoted, because we don't do any of that.
What we are not
We are not contractors, estimators, engineers, lenders or tax advisers. We don't visit homes, and a calculator can't see slope, rot, wiring or soil. Our numbers are a planning range, not a quote. For anything that affects safety, codes or permits, the people to ask are your city's building department and licensed local pros.
How the site pays for itself
Right now it doesn't. Home Ballpark shows no ads, has no lead forms, doesn't sell or share your information and has no affiliate links. If that changes, our disclosure page will say exactly how before it happens, and the numbers in the calculators won't change because of it.
Corrections
Prices change, and sources sometimes disagree. If you see a number that looks wrong, or a quote you received is far outside our range, please tell us. We check the source behind the figure and correct the page when the data supports it.