# US Building Permits Scraper — Official City Data (`automation_craft/us-building-permits-scraper`) Actor

Fresh building permits from 38 official US city open-data sources, normalized into one schema. Contractor leads for roofing, solar, HVAC & more. Filter by trade, date, valuation. Pay per record.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/automation\_craft/us-building-permits-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Automation Craft](https://apify.com/automation_craft) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Business, Real estate
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## US Building Permits Scraper — Official City Data, One Clean Schema

Get **fresh building permits from 38 official US city & county open-data sources** — normalized into one consistent schema, classified by trade, and delivered as clean JSON/CSV/Excel. Built for contractor lead generation (roofing, solar, HVAC, plumbing, pools), real-estate and construction market intelligence, and AI agents that need structured permit data.

Every record comes straight from the jurisdiction's **official public portal** (Socrata, ArcGIS, CKAN, Carto, or published city files) — no third-party middlemen, no stale mirrors. Most sources update **daily**.

### Why this Actor

- **One schema for 38 jurisdictions.** Every city publishes permits differently (different portals, field names, date formats). This Actor refines them into a single normalized record, so `contractor_name` means the same thing in Seattle as it does in Miami-Dade.
- **Trade classification built in.** Each permit is classified into `roofing`, `solar`, `electrical`, `plumbing`, `mechanical`, `pool`, `demolition`, `fence`, `sign`, `fire`, `grading`, `building`, or `other` — filter to exactly the leads you sell to.
- **Honest pricing.** You pay per permit record delivered. Zero results, a broken city source, or an invalid input = **no per-record charges**. Ever.
- **Fresh.** Verified update cadence: most sources publish within 1–3 days of issuance (see the coverage table — the few that lag are flagged).

### What you get (output record)

```json
{
  "city": "Denver",
  "state": "CO",
  "jurisdiction": "Denver, CO",
  "permit_number": "2026-RESCON-0001780",
  "permit_type": "Alteration/Tenant Finish",
  "permit_subtype": "Residential",
  "trade": "building",
  "description": null,
  "status": null,
  "issued_date": "2026-08-10",
  "applied_date": "2026-06-02",
  "expires_date": null,
  "finaled_date": null,
  "address": "599 S Dale CT",
  "zipcode": null,
  "latitude": 39.69,
  "longitude": -104.99,
  "valuation": 8000,
  "contractor_name": "SENNETT WINDOWS",
  "contractor_license": null,
  "contractor_phone": null,
  "applicant_name": null,
  "owner_name": null,
  "source": "Denver Open Data — construction permits",
  "source_dataset_url": "https://opendata-geospatialdenver.hub.arcgis.com"
}
```

Fields a jurisdiction does not publish are `null` — see the coverage table below for exactly what each city provides. We never invent or "enrich" data that isn't in the official record.

### Coverage (verified live)

| Jurisdiction | Address | Valuation | Contractor | Lat/Lon | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlanta, GA | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | recent-activity window (~1yr) |
| Austin, TX | ✓ | partial | ✓ +phone | partial | |
| Baltimore, MD | ✓ | partial | — | ✓ | 2019–present |
| Arlington, TX | — | ✓ | — | ✓ | no street address published |
| Baton Rouge, LA | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Boston, MA | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | applicant published |
| Chicago, IL | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Cincinnati, OH | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Cleveland, OH | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ +license | ✓ | |
| Columbus, OH | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | applicant business published |
| Denver, CO | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | no work description |
| Las Vegas, NV | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | no work description |
| Detroit, MI | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | |
| Los Angeles, CA | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | permits issued 2020+ |
| Louisville, KY | ✓ | ✓ | partial | ✓ | active/recent permits |
| Maricopa County, AZ | ✓ | — | — | ✓ | unincorporated Phoenix metro |
| Marin County, CA | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ +license | ✓ | |
| Memphis, TN | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | |
| Mesa, AZ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ +license | ✓ | |
| Miami, FL (city) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Miami-Dade County, FL | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ +phone | — | |
| Minneapolis, MN | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Montgomery County, MD | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | residential permits |
| Nashville, TN | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| New Jersey (statewide) | — | ✓ | — | — | municipality-level, huge volume |
| New Orleans, LA | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| New York City, NY | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | DOB NOW; applicant + owner published |
| Philadelphia, PA | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Pittsburgh, PA | ✓ | ✓ | partial | ✓ | owner published |
| Raleigh, NC | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ +phone | ✓ | past 180 days |
| Sacramento, CA | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | source lags ~1–2 weeks; current year |
| San Antonio, TX | partial | — | — | — | applicant published |
| San Diego, CA | ✓ | partial | ✓ | ✓ | current year |
| San Francisco, CA | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | |
| Seattle, WA | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | |
| Tempe, AZ | ✓ | ✓ | partial +phone | ✓ | |
| Tucson, AZ | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | |
| Washington, DC | ✓ | — | — | ✓ | current calendar year |

"partial" = the official source populates the field on some records only. Contractor **phone numbers** come through on Austin, Raleigh, Tempe, and Miami-Dade.

### How to use it

1. Pick your **cities** (or `all`).
2. Set the **date window** — e.g. permits issued in the last 14 days.
3. Optionally filter by **trade** (e.g. `roofing`, `solar`), **minimum valuation**, or **search text**.
4. Run. Export JSON/CSV/Excel from the dataset, or call it on a schedule / via API / as an MCP tool for your AI agents.

#### Example: roofing leads in Texas metros, last 7 days

```json
{
  "cities": ["austin", "san-antonio", "arlington-tx"],
  "issuedAfter": "2026-08-04",
  "trades": ["roofing"],
  "maxRecordsTotal": 500
}
```

#### Example: high-value commercial activity in Chicago

```json
{
  "cities": ["chicago"],
  "issuedAfter": "2026-07-01",
  "minValuation": 1000000
}
```

### Pricing

Pay per event: a small Actor-start fee plus **$0.005 per permit record delivered**. 1,000 fresh permit leads ≈ $5. Compare: permit lead services charge $79–$249 per ZIP code per month, and permit data APIs start at $599/month. No subscription, no seat licenses, no sales call.

- Zero matching permits → **$0** in record charges (you only pay the start fee).
- A city source being down → **$0** for that city, clearly reported in a status record.

### ✅ What this Actor CAN do

- Pull permits **issued in a date window** across any of the 38 covered jurisdictions
- Normalize official records into **one schema** with ISO dates and numeric valuations
- Classify permits by **trade** and filter by trade, valuation, or free text
- Return **contractor names** (and licenses/phones where the city publishes them)
- Feed spreadsheets, CRMs, dashboards, or **AI agents** (works as an MCP tool via Apify)

### ❌ What this Actor does NOT do

- **No jurisdictions beyond the coverage table.** If a city isn't listed, it isn't covered (yet — coverage grows; suggest cities in the Issues tab).
- **No data the city doesn't publish.** Fields marked "—" are null for that city; we don't buy, scrape, or guess contact details from elsewhere.
- **No permit *applications*** (except where noted) — this is issued/approved permits.
- **No guarantee of same-day data** where the official source itself lags (flagged in the table).
- **No historical backfill beyond each source's own window** (e.g. DC = current year, Raleigh = 180 days; most others go back years).

### FAQ

**Where does the data come from?** Directly from each jurisdiction's official open-data portal — Socrata (Chicago, NYC, LA, SF, Seattle…), ArcGIS (Denver, DC, Miami, Nashville…), CKAN (Boston, San Antonio, Pittsburgh), Carto (Philadelphia), and official published files (San Diego). Sources are re-verified continuously; each record carries its `source_dataset_url`.

**How fresh is it?** Most sources update daily; the newest permits are typically 1–3 days old. Sacramento and a few others lag 1–2 weeks (flagged above).

**Can I run this on a schedule?** Yes — schedule it in Apify Console (e.g. daily, `issuedAfter` = yesterday) and pipe new permits to Google Sheets, webhooks, Make/Zapier, or your CRM.

**Is this legal?** Yes. Building permits are public records, published by the jurisdictions themselves specifically for public reuse.

**A city I need is missing / a field looks wrong?** Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab — coverage requests are prioritized.

# Actor input Schema

## `cities` (type: `array`):

Which covered jurisdictions to pull permits from. Use \["all"] for every covered source. Leave empty for a quick Chicago sample (last 7 days).

## `issuedAfter` (type: `string`):

Only permits issued on/after this date. Defaults to the last 14 days (7 days when no cities are selected).

## `issuedBefore` (type: `string`):

Only permits issued on/before this date. Optional.

## `trades` (type: `array`):

Keep only permits classified into these trades (classified from permit type + work description). Leave empty for all trades.

## `minValuation` (type: `integer`):

Keep only permits with declared valuation/cost at or above this amount. Sources that do not publish valuation are excluded when this is set.

## `searchText` (type: `string`):

Keep only permits whose type, description, address, or contractor contains this text (case-insensitive).

## `maxRecordsPerCity` (type: `integer`):

Cap on charged permit records per selected city.

## `maxRecordsTotal` (type: `integer`):

Overall cap on charged permit records for the run.

## `includeRaw` (type: `boolean`):

Attach the original source record under `raw` on every item (bigger items, same price).

## `socrataAppToken` (type: `string`):

Optional free Socrata app token; lifts anonymous throttling on Socrata-backed cities for very large pulls. Not required.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "cities": [
    "chicago",
    "los-angeles",
    "new-york"
  ],
  "maxRecordsPerCity": 100,
  "maxRecordsTotal": 500
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `permits` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "cities": [
        "chicago",
        "los-angeles",
        "new-york"
    ],
    "maxRecordsPerCity": 100,
    "maxRecordsTotal": 500
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("automation_craft/us-building-permits-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "cities": [
        "chicago",
        "los-angeles",
        "new-york",
    ],
    "maxRecordsPerCity": 100,
    "maxRecordsTotal": 500,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("automation_craft/us-building-permits-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "cities": [
    "chicago",
    "los-angeles",
    "new-york"
  ],
  "maxRecordsPerCity": 100,
  "maxRecordsTotal": 500
}' |
apify call automation_craft/us-building-permits-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,automation_craft/us-building-permits-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/hu6xaxgxgcLk8wg8F/builds/NknYka3VxF9cpgRIP/openapi.json