Building Permit Data & Statistics
Real insights from 8,746,696 permit records across 31 major US cities, sourced from official city open data portals.
Data covers 2021–2026 · Last updated April 2026 · Methodology ↓
Report 1: Average Permit Costs by City (2026)
Average project cost and permit fee per city, based on all permits filed with a declared value. Cities with fewer than 100 records are excluded.
| City | Permits Analyzed | Avg Project Cost | Avg Permit Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Antonio | 94,047 | $997,927 | N/A |
| Olathe | 2,159 | $532,730 | N/A |
| Atlanta | 36,111 | $362,331 | N/A |
| Seattle, WA | 31,938 | $303,969 | N/A |
| Cambridge | 9,501 | $302,645 | N/A |
| Raleigh | 28,850 | $295,376 | $2,436 |
| Nashville | 30,609 | $273,039 | N/A |
| Bellevue Wa | 424,928 | $230,838 | $1,151 |
| Charlotte | 81,088 | $223,283 | N/A |
| Miami | 149,798 | $221,627 | N/A |
| San Jose, CA | 21,362 | $211,328 | N/A |
| Denver, CO | 34,447 | $204,188 | $1,360 |
| Provo | 20,054 | $192,567 | N/A |
| New York City, NY | 669,901 | $179,663 | N/A |
| Greensboro | 22,376 | $176,487 | $383 |
| Albuquerque | 37,767 | $169,497 | N/A |
| Tucson | 467,898 | $125,268 | N/A |
| Chicago, IL | 179,904 | $125,183 | $947 |
| Honolulu, HI | 61,050 | $114,123 | $1,292 |
| Dallas, TX | 329,791 | $111,036 | N/A |
| Louisville | 16,963 | $107,487 | $330 |
| Detroit | 33,617 | $102,252 | $1,622 |
| Montgomery County | 35,760 | $99,351 | N/A |
| Newark Nj | 17,755 | $99,050 | $1,596 |
| Overland Park | 52,979 | $98,285 | $399 |
| Portland, OR | 265,493 | $94,664 | N/A |
| Kansas City | 84,107 | $92,066 | N/A |
| Boston, MA | 640,454 | $91,652 | $620 |
| Saint Paul | 86,593 | $80,782 | N/A |
| Pittsburgh | 62,038 | $78,686 | N/A |
| Columbus | 666,926 | $75,730 | N/A |
| Jersey City Nj | 13,738 | $75,418 | $822 |
| San Francisco, CA | 124,761 | $68,709 | N/A |
| Los Angeles, CA | 325,812 | $66,650 | N/A |
| Corona | 23,552 | $64,599 | N/A |
| Cook County, IL | 518,994 | $64,571 | N/A |
| Orlando, FL | 198,740 | $61,988 | N/A |
| Cincinnati, OH | 48,060 | $59,752 | $1,190 |
| Blue Springs | 5,950 | $58,057 | N/A |
| Minneapolis, MN | 182,951 | $56,423 | $541 |
| Sacramento | 205,165 | $50,432 | N/A |
| Lakewood Nj | 24,224 | $49,876 | $723 |
| Marin County | 22,511 | $49,466 | N/A |
| Framingham | 63,074 | $39,570 | $312 |
| Plainfield Nj | 9,226 | $35,477 | $630 |
| Jackson Nj | 18,307 | $35,336 | $642 |
| Cherry Hill Nj | 21,603 | $34,177 | $582 |
| Toms River Nj | 30,155 | $33,852 | $539 |
| East Brunswick Nj | 14,715 | $33,512 | $723 |
| Providence, RI | 22,436 | $32,966 | N/A |
| Edison Nj | 30,199 | $32,716 | $693 |
| Las Vegas | 126,281 | $32,665 | N/A |
| Woodbridge Nj | 21,204 | $31,882 | $436 |
| Clifton Nj | 21,372 | $30,700 | $422 |
| Franklin Twp Nj | 21,577 | $29,134 | $450 |
| Middletown Nj | 21,583 | $29,039 | $590 |
| Macon | 133,574 | $28,835 | N/A |
| Baltimore | 191,748 | $28,132 | N/A |
| Howell Nj | 17,647 | $27,994 | $563 |
| Brick Nj | 20,061 | $26,806 | $582 |
| Monroe Twp Nj | 32,432 | $25,452 | $513 |
| Hamilton Nj | 29,740 | $24,744 | $503 |
| Washington Twp Nj | 21,019 | $23,631 | $424 |
| Fair Lawn Nj | 11,309 | $23,606 | $518 |
| Old Bridge Nj | 21,168 | $21,055 | $650 |
| Austin, TX | 318,545 | N/A | N/A |
| Baton Rouge | 47,015 | N/A | $168 |
| Gainesville | 96,519 | N/A | N/A |
| Mesa | 24,024 | N/A | N/A |
| New Orleans, LA | 106,346 | N/A | $473 |
| Norfolk | 53,386 | N/A | $411 |
| Philadelphia, PA | 245,931 | N/A | N/A |
| Phoenix, AZ | 69,180 | N/A | N/A |
| Salem | 922 | N/A | N/A |
| San Diego County | 177,193 | N/A | N/A |
| Tampa | 2,183 | N/A | N/A |
| Virginia Beach | 83,288 | N/A | N/A |
| Washington, DC | 179,952 | N/A | $821 |
| Worcester | 51,010 | N/A | N/A |
Outliers removed: projects with declared cost > $10M or permit fee > $100K are excluded from averages. Data sourced from official city open data portals.
Report 2: Most Common Permit Types Across Major US Cities
The 15 most frequently filed permit types, ranked by total permit count across all covered cities.
Permit type labels are normalized to uppercase and grouped by exact string match. Minor spelling variations across cities may result in separate entries.
Report 3: Busiest Contractors by City
Top 20 contractors by total permits pulled, grouped by city. Names with 3 characters or fewer are excluded to remove test/placeholder entries.
| # | Contractor | City | Permits Pulled |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NONE | Bellevue Wa | 89,441 |
| 2 | OTHER | Macon | 69,357 |
| 3 | CONTRACTOR | Macon | 64,137 |
| 4 | OWNER | Bellevue Wa | 28,640 |
| 5 | CenterPoint Energy Resource Corp | Minneapolis, MN | 24,540 |
| 6 | Atlas Butler Heating and Cooling | Columbus | 11,898 |
| 7 | COLUMBUS/WORTHINGTON AIR | Columbus | 10,674 |
| 8 | Permit Service, Inc. | Kansas City | 9,457 |
| 9 | ECO PLUMBERS INC | Columbus | 8,448 |
| 10 | BELL BROTHER'S HEATING AND AIR INC | Sacramento | 7,417 |
| 11 | WATER HEATERS PLUS INC | Columbus | 7,347 |
| 12 | Robert Trethewey | Boston, MA | 7,039 |
| 13 | FAST WATER HEATER COMPANY JEFFERY DAVID JORDAN | Bellevue Wa | 6,527 |
| 14 | Rosati Windows | Columbus | 6,086 |
| 15 | Warners Stellian Co Inc | Minneapolis, MN | 5,776 |
| 16 | ROMANOFF ELECTRIC INC | Columbus | 5,766 |
| 17 | BONNEY PLUMBING LLC | Sacramento | 5,333 |
| 18 | ANDAMIO SCAFFOLDING LLC | New York City, NY | 5,261 |
| 19 | POTELCO INC | Bellevue Wa | 5,220 |
| 20 | Rosati Windows LLC | Columbus | 5,206 |
Contractor names are grouped case-insensitively per city. The same contractor may appear multiple times if they operate in different cities.
Methodology & Data Sources
Data sourced from official city open data portals via real-time API queries. Records from 2021–2026.
- Source: Official municipal open data APIs (Socrata, ArcGIS, city-specific endpoints) for 31 US cities including Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Philadelphia, and all NJ municipalities.
- Collection: Permit records are fetched in real-time as users query the Permit History tool, then stored locally for aggregation. No scraping, all data comes from official government APIs.
- Cleaning: Outlier costs (>$10M) and fees (>$100K) are excluded from averages. Contractor names of 3 characters or fewer are excluded. Permit type strings are normalized to uppercase before grouping.
- Coverage: Represents all permit records retrieved through PermitMint's permit history tool as of April 2026. Record counts vary by city depending on query volume and API availability.
- Limitations: This dataset reflects permits searched for via PermitMint, it is not a random or stratified sample of all permits in each city. Cities with more PermitMint users will be over-represented.
- License: Source data is public record. Aggregated statistics on this page are freely usable with attribution to PermitMint.
For press inquiries, data requests, or corrections, contact us. We can provide CSV exports of aggregated (non-personal) data on request.
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