# US Building Permits Scraper - Construction Leads, 13 Cities (`burn98/building-permits-scraper`) Actor

Fresh building permits from official city open-data APIs: Chicago, NYC, LA, Austin, Seattle, SF, Philadelphia, Boston + more. Normalized permit type, status, address, valuation and contractor name. Construction leads, pay per result.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/burn98/building-permits-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Michi Reinhoffer](https://apify.com/burn98) (community)
- **Categories:** Real estate, Lead generation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 1 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 1,000 results

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 a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases.
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.

In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md):

```bash
npm install apify-client
```

In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md):

```bash
pip install apify-client
```

In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md):

````bash
# MacOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash
# Windows
irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex
```bash

In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md).

If your project is in a different language, use 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 — Construction Leads from 13 Major Cities

Get fresh building permits straight from official city open-data APIs, normalized into one clean schema: permit number, type, status, issue date, address, project valuation, and **contractor name where the city publishes it**. Type a city name, get permits. No proxies, no brittle HTML scraping — every source is a government JSON API.

### Supported cities

| City | Contractor names | Valuation | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago, IL | ✅ | ✅ | data.cityofchicago.org |
| New York, NY (DOB NOW) | ✅ | ✅ | data.cityofnewyork.us |
| Los Angeles, CA | — | ✅ | data.lacity.org |
| Austin, TX | ✅ | partial | datahub.austintexas.gov |
| Seattle, WA | — | ✅ | data.seattle.gov |
| San Francisco, CA | — | ✅ | data.sfgov.org |
| Philadelphia, PA | ✅ | — | phl.carto.com (L&I) |
| Boston, MA | ✅ (applicant) | ✅ | data.boston.gov |
| New Orleans, LA | ✅ | ✅ | data.nola.gov |
| Cincinnati, OH | ✅ | ✅ | data.cincinnati-oh.gov |
| Baton Rouge, LA (EBR Parish) | ✅ | ✅ | data.brla.gov |
| Norfolk, VA | — | — | data.norfolk.gov |
| Montgomery County, MD | — | ✅ | data.montgomerycountymd.gov |

**Bonus:** any other city on a Socrata open-data portal works too — paste the dataset's resource URL (`https://<portal>/resource/<id>.json`) and the actor auto-maps the common permit fields.

### Why this actor

- **Construction leads with purchase intent.** A freshly issued permit is a project that is funded and about to start. Filter by issue date, sort by valuation, call the contractor.
- **Official sources only.** Government open-data APIs — stable, legal, no anti-bot arms race, no proxy costs passed to you.
- **One schema across all cities.** No per-city CSV wrangling; `permitNumber`, `issuedDate`, `valuation`, `contractor` mean the same thing everywhere.
- **Honest field coverage.** The table above tells you exactly which cities publish contractor names and valuations. Cities that don't publish a field return `null` — we don't fabricate or "enrich" data.
- **Built-in quality guard.** If a city changes its data schema, the actor flags it and skips the garbage instead of filling your dataset with empty rows.
- **Pay per result.** You pay only for permits actually delivered.

### Who uses this

- **Building-material suppliers** — new permits by ZIP = who needs lumber, roofing, HVAC equipment this month.
- **Contractor & subcontractor sales teams** — solar, HVAC, plumbing, electrical subs prospecting the GCs pulling permits.
- **Market researchers & PropTech** — construction activity, valuations, and permit velocity by city and neighborhood.
- **Real-estate investors** — track renovation and development activity block by block.

### Input

```json
{
    "cities": ["chicago", "austin", "philadelphia", "baton-rouge"],
    "issuedAfter": "2026-06-01",
    "maxPermitsPerCity": 500
}
````

- `cities` — city names (`chicago`, `nyc`, `la`, `sf`, `philly`, …), portal URLs, or raw Socrata resource URLs.
- `issuedAfter` (optional) — only permits issued on/after this date. For lead generation, the last 7–30 days is the sweet spot.
- `maxPermitsPerCity` — cap per city, newest first (default 500).

### Output

One dataset item per permit:

```json
{
    "city": "Chicago, IL",
    "permitNumber": "B200476664",
    "permitType": "PERMIT - EXPRESS PERMIT PROGRAM",
    "status": "ACTIVE",
    "issuedDate": "2026-07-10T00:00:00.000",
    "address": "9764 S LOOMIS ST",
    "description": "INSTALL SOLAR PANELS ON ROOF OF ACCESSORY BUILDING",
    "valuation": 5130,
    "contractor": "SUNRUN INSTALLATION SERVICES",
    "latitude": 41.716239,
    "longitude": -87.657705,
    "url": null,
    "source": "chicago"
}
```

Export as JSON, CSV, or Excel from the dataset tab, or pull via the Apify API into your CRM.

### FAQ

**Is this legal?**
Yes. All data comes from official government open-data portals that cities publish explicitly for public use, via their documented APIs (Socrata, Carto, CKAN). No scraping of protected or private systems.

**What about homeowner privacy?**
This actor deliberately does **not** output homeowner/owner name fields, even where cities publish them. Lead generation needs the contractor and the project — not the resident. Contractor and business names are included because they are commercial actors on public commercial records.

**Why isn't my city listed?**
Many cities (Miami, Denver, DC, Phoenix, …) run their permits on ArcGIS or Accela portals that need per-city integration — they're on the roadmap. If your city has a Socrata portal, paste the dataset resource URL and it will likely work today. Unsupported cities are logged in the run, never silently dropped.

**How fresh is the data?**
Each supported city's dataset is refreshed by the city itself, typically daily. The actor always returns the newest permits first.

**A city returned fewer permits than my cap — why?**
Either the `issuedAfter` window contains fewer permits, or the city published fewer records. The run log shows per-city counts.

# Actor input Schema

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

City names (chicago, nyc, la, austin, seattle, sf, philadelphia, boston, new-orleans, cincinnati, baton-rouge, norfolk, montgomery-county-md), open-data portal URLs, or any Socrata resource URL (https://<domain>/resource/<id>.json).

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

Only permits issued on or after this date. Leave empty for the newest permits up to the per-city cap. For fresh construction leads use the last 7-30 days.

## `maxPermitsPerCity` (type: `integer`):

Cap on permits returned per city (newest first).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "cities": [
    "chicago",
    "austin",
    "philadelphia",
    "baton-rouge"
  ],
  "maxPermitsPerCity": 500
}
```

# 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",
        "austin",
        "philadelphia",
        "baton-rouge"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("burn98/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",
        "austin",
        "philadelphia",
        "baton-rouge",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("burn98/building-permits-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).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",
    "austin",
    "philadelphia",
    "baton-rouge"
  ]
}' |
apify call burn98/building-permits-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=burn98/building-permits-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

```json
{
    "openapi": "3.0.1",
    "info": {
        "title": "US Building Permits Scraper - Construction Leads, 13 Cities",
        "description": "Fresh building permits from official city open-data APIs: Chicago, NYC, LA, Austin, Seattle, SF, Philadelphia, Boston + more. Normalized permit type, status, address, valuation and contractor name. Construction leads, pay per result.",
        "version": "0.1",
        "x-build-id": "jBNaTYrqj6qK3Kvn7"
    },
    "servers": [
        {
            "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2"
        }
    ],
    "paths": {
        "/acts/burn98~building-permits-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-burn98-building-permits-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/burn98~building-permits-scraper/runs": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "runs-sync-burn98-building-permits-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK",
                        "content": {
                            "application/json": {
                                "schema": {
                                    "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema"
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/burn98~building-permits-scraper/run-sync": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-burn98-building-permits-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    },
    "components": {
        "schemas": {
            "inputSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "required": [
                    "cities"
                ],
                "properties": {
                    "cities": {
                        "title": "Cities",
                        "type": "array",
                        "description": "City names (chicago, nyc, la, austin, seattle, sf, philadelphia, boston, new-orleans, cincinnati, baton-rouge, norfolk, montgomery-county-md), open-data portal URLs, or any Socrata resource URL (https://<domain>/resource/<id>.json).",
                        "items": {
                            "type": "string"
                        }
                    },
                    "issuedAfter": {
                        "title": "Issued after (YYYY-MM-DD)",
                        "pattern": "^\\d{4}-\\d{2}-\\d{2}$",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Only permits issued on or after this date. Leave empty for the newest permits up to the per-city cap. For fresh construction leads use the last 7-30 days."
                    },
                    "maxPermitsPerCity": {
                        "title": "Max permits per city",
                        "minimum": 1,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Cap on permits returned per city (newest first).",
                        "default": 500
                    }
                }
            },
            "runsResponseSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "data": {
                        "type": "object",
                        "properties": {
                            "id": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "actId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "userId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "startedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "finishedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "status": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "READY"
                            },
                            "meta": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "origin": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "API"
                                    },
                                    "userAgent": {
                                        "type": "string"
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "stats": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "inputBodyLen": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2000
                                    },
                                    "rebootCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "restartCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "resurrectCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "computeUnits": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "options": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "build": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "latest"
                                    },
                                    "timeoutSecs": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 300
                                    },
                                    "memoryMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1024
                                    },
                                    "diskMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2048
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "buildId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultKeyValueStoreId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultDatasetId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultRequestQueueId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "buildNumber": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "1.0.0"
                            },
                            "containerUrl": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "usage": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "usageTotalUsd": {
                                "type": "number",
                                "example": 0.00005
                            },
                            "usageUsd": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "number",
                                        "example": 0.00005
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
```