US Building Permits Scraper (Socrata/SODA API)

Scrapes building and construction permits from any US city's open data portal powered by Socrata (SODA API). Extracts permit details, contractor leads, owner information, and property coordinates for roofing/solar/HVAC contractors, building material suppliers, real estate investors, and construction market analysts.

Why use this Actor?

• Lead generation: Every issued permit signals a construction job about to start — a buyer for materials, equipment, subcontracting, or financing.
• Multi-city coverage: Works with any Socrata open-data portal (NYC, LA, Chicago, Austin, SF, and hundreds more).
• Public data: No login, no API key required for modest use. Statutorily public municipal records.
• Structured output: Clean, deduplicated rows with permit number, type, status, dates, address, work description, valuation, contractor/owner details, coordinates, and parcel ID.
• Flexible filtering: Search by keyword (solar, roofing, HVAC), date range, custom SoQL where clauses, and column selection.

How to use

1. Set input parameters in the Input tab or via JSON:
   • domain: City open-data host (e.g., data.cityofnewyork.us)
   • datasetId: 4x4 dataset identifier (e.g., rbx6-tga4 for NYC DOB NOW)
   • Optional: searchQuery, dateField, dateFrom, dateTo, whereClause, select, limit, offset
2. Run the Actor. It will fetch records from the Socrata API, map columns to standard fields, and push results to a dataset.
3. Export results in JSON, CSV, Excel, or via API.

Example input

{
    "domain": "data.cityofnewyork.us",
    "datasetId": "rbx6-tga4",
    "searchQuery": "solar",
    "dateField": "issued_date",
    "dateFrom": "2024-01-01",
    "dateTo": "2024-01-31",
    "limit": 100
}

Output fields

Field	Description
permit_number	Unique permit identifier
permit_type	Type of work (e.g., Solar, General Construction)
status	Permit status (e.g., Signed-off, Issued)
issue_date	Date permit was issued
address	Property address (composite if needed)
work_description	Description of work to be performed
valuation	Estimated job cost
contractor_name	Contractor or applicant business name
contractor_license	Contractor license number
owner_name	Property owner name
latitude	Property latitude
longitude	Property longitude
city	City or borough
parcel_id	Parcel identifier (BBL, lot, etc.)
raw	Original record from the source dataset

Pricing

This Actor uses Apify's compute units. Free-tier users are limited to 10 items per run; paying users have no limit.

Technical details

• Strategy: Cheerio-based HTML scraping of the dataset page for metadata, plus the public CSV export endpoint (/api/views/{id}/rows.csv) for data — this bypasses the rate-limited SODA JSON API that direct API calls hit.
• Column mapping: Automatically detects and maps dataset columns to standard fields using pattern matching.
• Proxy: Configurable Apify proxy support via CheerioCrawler for high-volume runs.
• Retries/sessions: Built-in retry and session management from Crawlee protects against intermittent blocks.

Supported cities

Any US city portal powered by Socrata. Pre-configured examples:

• New York City (data.cityofnewyork.us)
• Los Angeles (data.lacity.org)
• Chicago (data.cityofchicago.org)
• San Francisco (data.sfgov.org)
• Austin (data.austintexas.gov)
• Seattle (data.seattle.gov)
• And many more...

FAQ

Q: Do I need an API key?
A: No, Socrata datasets are publicly accessible. However, for high-volume usage, consider registering for an app token to avoid rate limits.

Q: How do I find the dataset ID?
A: Open the dataset page on the city's portal, click "Export" → "SODA API", and copy the 4x4 identifier.

Q: Can I filter by permit type or status?
A: Yes, use the whereClause parameter with SoQL syntax (e.g., work_type='Solar').

Q: What if the dataset columns differ?
A: The Actor uses intelligent column mapping. It will try to match common column names; you can also specify exact columns via the select parameter.

Support

For issues or feature requests, please open an issue on the Apify platform.

Disclaimer

This Actor accesses publicly available government data. Users are responsible for complying with the terms of service of the target data portals and applicable laws.

SEO Keywords

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Related Actors

Verified related actors on Apify that pair well with this one. All links point to real, publicly available actors.

• Apify Web Scraper
• Google Search Scraper
• Google Maps Places