How we collect and count building permits

We read each city’s official building permit dataset through its open-data API (Socrata, CARTO, CKAN or ArcGIS) or its published bulk file. We never scrape web pages, and we don’t buy data. The dataset for every city is linked on the data sources page.

We check every feed daily and re-read the last week of permits each time, because cities often publish or correct permits a few days after they are issued. City pages describe a rolling 90-day window ending at the city’s newest data; monthly reports cover complete calendar months.

Each city’s columns are mapped into one schema (permit number, dates, type, work class, description, address, value, contractor). Dates, dollar amounts and ZIP codes are parsed into one format. Where a city lists the same permit more than once, we keep the most recently issued and most complete record.

Permits that aren’t construction work, such as traffic control, sidewalk and street-use permits, are excluded with per-city rules.

Every permit is labeled commercial, multifamily (five or more units), residential or unknown. We use the city’s own classification where it publishes one. In New York City and Chicago, where permits don’t say, we look up the building’s land-use class in the city or county assessor’s records. Anything left is classified from the permit’s own words (for example “tenant improvement”, “warehouse” or “apartments”).

“Commercial and multifamily” permits, the ones on our city pages, are the ones a commercial contractor, subcontractor or supplier can bid on.

Each permit is tagged with one trade (building, electrical, HVAC/mechanical, plumbing, fire protection, roofing, solar, demolition, signs, elevator) from its permit type first and its description second. A project carries every trade its permits were tagged with.

One construction job often needs several permits: building, electrical, plumbing, mechanical. We group them into one project using the city’s project or job number where it has one, and otherwise the building address (with unit and suite numbers removed, so a whole building groups together).

A project’s value is the sum of the distinct values declared on its permits; some cities repeat the whole project’s value on every permit, and we count it once.

Contractor names are normalized so that variants match (“ABC Inc.”, “ABC, INC” and “ABC Incorporated” are one company). A contractor profile counts the commercial and multifamily permits filed under that name in one city. We show the name as the city publishes it; we don’t verify licenses.

Permits

Individual permits as the city issued them, counted by issue date.

Projects

Permits grouped by job (see above), counted by their latest permit date.

Declared value

The construction cost the applicant declared on the permit. It is not a market value or a contract amount, and many cities don't require it for trade permits.

Days to issue

Calendar days from the application date to the issue date, for permits whose record includes both. We report medians, so a few very old applications don't skew the figure.

Most active contractor

The contractor named on the most commercial and multifamily permits in the period.

Every permit and project fact is free at any age: address, scope, category, trades, declared value, dates and permit counts, on city pages and on each project’s own page. So are aggregates, rankings and contractor profiles. The contractor on a project is named publicly once its first permit is 30 days old; before that, who is on a new job is part of the paid plans, with phone numbers and property owners where the city publishes them, search, alerts, exports and the API. We never show phone numbers, owners or applicants on public pages.

• New York City: Classified with the NYC PLUTO building class matched on the lot's BBL (about 95% match); condo unit lots fall back to keywords.
• Chicago: Classified with the Cook County Assessor property class matched on the PIN (about 76% match); permits without a PIN fall back to keywords.
• Philadelphia: Permits carry no declared value.
• Boston: Permits name the applicant only, not a contractor.
• Los Angeles: Permits carry no contractor.
• San Francisco: Contractors are published in a separate dataset we don't join yet.
• Austin: Few commercial permits declare a value.
• Seattle: About 8% of permits name a contractor.
• San Diego: About 18% declare a value, about 45% name a permit holder and about half have a street address; roughly 40% of approvals are administrative and excluded.

State, metro, county and city housing pages use the U.S. Census Bureau’s Building Permits Survey: new privately owned housing units authorized by building permits, by month, for every permit-issuing place, with the Bureau’s estimates for places that didn’t report. It counts housing only (no commercial buildings, no renovations), so those pages are housing statistics; our commercial data covers the cities listed above.

We publish a page for every state, and for counties, metro areas and places active enough to be useful: at least 100 units in the last 12 months for a county, 250 for a metro area, and 50 for a city or town (or a population of 25,000 or more). Twelve-month totals are summed from the monthly releases; the Bureau publishes each month about six weeks after it ends.

Permit records are public, and we show them as the city published them. If something on a page is wrong, or a city has corrected a record, email support@uspermitsearch.com with the page address and we’ll check it against the source.