The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is implementing across the board the cost estimator model for property refurbishments from data provider Marshall & Swift. The tool will provide maintenance or improvement costs on Federal Housing Administration (FHA) homes. M&S provides building cost data and estimating technology, and demand has grown as more residential properties enter the foreclosure market. HUD’s Office of Single Family Asset Management will implement the program to simplify and eventually automate the confirmation of costs across the country. M&S is a MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) company, which collects and processes data for the decisions made by businesses and governments around the globe. Now, the US government is one of those clients. “The selection of Marshall & Swift’s industry leading total component database, offers defendable repair cost estimations in the fifty states and territories, and will streamline validating costs for residential property repair and preservation,” said Salil Donde, CEO of M&S. Write to Jon Prior.