Austin Building Permits Scraper

Scrape the official City of Austin issued construction permit dataset. Search or filter Austin building permits by permit type, class, work class, status, jurisdiction, council district, zip code, contractor, valuation, square footage, or applied/issued/status date — or look up permits by permit number, property address, contractor name, TCAD property ID, or master permit number. Powered by the public City of Austin Open Data (Socrata) API. No login, no API key, no proxy required.

What this actor does

• Six modes: search (filter/browse), byPermitNumber, byAddress, byContractor, byTcadId, byMasterPermitNumber
• Rich filters: permit type/class/work class, status, jurisdiction, council district, zip code, valuation & square-footage ranges, applied/issued/status-date ranges, full-text search, and a geographic radius around a lat/lon point
• Every issued permit — Building, Electrical, Mechanical, and Plumbing Permits, plus Driveway/Sidewalk permits, issued by the City of Austin
• Contractor, applicant, valuation & geo data on every permit — company/individual names, per-trade valuations, square footage, latitude/longitude, council district
• Empty fields are omitted — a permit missing a completion date or a contractor record simply has no such field, never a placeholder

Output per permit record

• permitNumber — City of Austin permit number (e.g. 2026-077081 DS)
• permitType, permitTypeDesc — permit type code (BP/EP/MP/PP/DS) and its description
• permitClassMapped, permitClass — Residential/Commercial mapping and the detailed permit class code
• workClass — type of work performed (New, Remodel, Repair, Demolition, etc.)
• condominium — boolean, only present when the dataset records a Yes/No value
• permitLocation — the project location/name text recorded on the permit
• description — free-text work description
• tcadId — Travis Central Appraisal District property identifier
• legalDescription
• appliedDate, issueDate, dayIssued, calendarYearIssued, fiscalYearIssued, issuedInLast30Days
• issueMethod — how the permit was issued (Permit Center, Online)
• status, statusDate, expiresDate, completedDate
• totalExistingBldgSqft, remodelRepairSqft, totalNewAddSqft, totalLotSqft
• totalJobValuation, totalValuationRemodel (USD)
• buildingValuation, buildingValuationRemodel, electricalValuation, electricalValuationRemodel, mechanicalValuation, mechanicalValuationRemodel, plumbingValuation, plumbingValuationRemodel, medGasValuation, medGasValuationRemodel (USD, only present when the permit has that trade's valuation)
• numberOfFloors, housingUnits
• streetAddress, city, state, zipcode, fullAddress
• councilDistrict — Austin City Council district (1-10)
• jurisdiction — governing jurisdiction (e.g. AUSTIN FULL PURPOSE, AUSTIN 2 MILE ETJ)
• projectId, masterPermitNumber
• latitude, longitude
• contractorTrade, contractorCompanyName, contractorFullName, contractorPhone, contractorAddress1, contractorAddress2, contractorCity, contractorZip
• applicantFullName, applicantOrganization, applicantPhone, applicantAddress1, applicantAddress2, applicantCity, applicantZip
• certificateOfOccupancy — boolean, only present when the dataset records a Yes/No value
• rowId — stable Socrata row identifier
• sourceUrl — direct link to this permit's page on the City of Austin permit-search portal (falls back to a direct open-data API query for the rare row missing that link)
• recordType: "buildingPermit", scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	search	search (filter/browse), byPermitNumber, byAddress, byContractor, byTcadId, or byMasterPermitNumber
searchQuery	string	–	Full-text search across description/address/contractor text fields (mode=search)
descriptionKeyword	string	–	Case-insensitive substring match on the work description
permitNumbers	array	–	Exact permit numbers to fetch (mode=byPermitNumber)
streetAddress	string	–	Property street address, partial match (mode=byAddress)
contractorName	string	–	Contractor company or individual name, partial match (mode=byContractor)
tcadIds	array	–	Exact TCAD property IDs to fetch (mode=byTcadId)
masterPermitNumbers	array	–	Exact master permit numbers to fetch all sub-permits for (mode=byMasterPermitNumber)
permitType	string	any	One of 5 permit types (Building, Electrical, Mechanical, Plumbing, Driveway/Sidewalks)
permitClassMapped	string	any	Residential or Commercial
permitClass	string	any	One of 66 detailed permit class codes
workClass	string	any	One of 32 work-class values (New, Remodel, Demolition, etc.)
status	string	any	One of 24 current permit statuses
jurisdiction	string	any	One of 37 governing jurisdictions
issueMethod	string	any	Permit Center or Online
councilDistrict	string	any	Austin City Council district 1-10
zipcode	string	any	One of 58 zip codes covered by the dataset
city	string	any	One of 28 property cities covered by the dataset
condominiumOnly	boolean	false	Only include permits flagged as condominium projects
certificateOfOccupancyOnly	boolean	false	Only include permits that received a certificate of occupancy
issuedInLast30DaysOnly	boolean	false	Only include permits the city flagged as issued in the last 30 days
appliedDateFrom / appliedDateTo	string	–	ISO date range (YYYY-MM-DD) on the applied date
issueDateFrom / issueDateTo	string	–	ISO date range (YYYY-MM-DD) on the issued date
statusDateFrom / statusDateTo	string	–	ISO date range (YYYY-MM-DD) on the status-change date
minTotalJobValuation / maxTotalJobValuation	number	–	Total job valuation bounds (USD, 0-1,000,000,000)
minTotalNewAddSqft / maxTotalNewAddSqft	number	–	New/added square footage bounds (0-10,000,000)
nearLatitude / nearLongitude	number	–	Only include permits within nearRadiusMeters of this point (mode=search)
nearRadiusMeters	number	2000	Radius in meters for the geographic filter (1-20000); only applies when both lat/lon are set
sortBy	string	issueDateDesc	Sort order — issued date, applied date, status date, or total job valuation
appToken	string	–	Optional free Socrata app token for higher rate limits
maxItems	int	50	Hard cap on emitted records (1-10000)

Example: browse the latest issued permits

{
  "mode": "search",
  "sortBy": "issueDateDesc",
  "maxItems": 20
}

Example: lookup by permit number

{
  "mode": "byPermitNumber",
  "permitNumbers": ["2026-077081 DS"]
}

Example: all permits at a specific address

{
  "mode": "byAddress",
  "streetAddress": "912 Bastrop Hwy"
}

Example: all permits by a specific contractor

{
  "mode": "byContractor",
  "contractorName": "Engen Contracting"
}

Example: all permits on a specific TCAD property

{
  "mode": "byTcadId",
  "tcadIds": ["0307200403"]
}

Example: all sub-permits under a master project

{
  "mode": "byMasterPermitNumber",
  "masterPermitNumbers": ["12674346"]
}

Example: high-value new-construction building permits in a council district

{
  "mode": "search",
  "permitType": "BP",
  "councilDistrict": "3",
  "minTotalJobValuation": 500000,
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example: residential pool permits issued in 2026

{
  "mode": "search",
  "descriptionKeyword": "pool",
  "permitClassMapped": "Residential",
  "issueDateFrom": "2026-01-01",
  "issueDateTo": "2026-12-31",
  "maxItems": 200
}

Example: permits within 2km of downtown Austin

{
  "mode": "search",
  "nearLatitude": 30.2672,
  "nearLongitude": -97.7431,
  "nearRadiusMeters": 2000,
  "maxItems": 100
}

Use cases

• Real estate research — check permit history, open work, and total job valuation for a property before buying or renting
• Contractor / architect prospecting — find recent new-construction or remodel permits by council district, permit class, or valuation range
• Contractor due diligence — pull a contractor's full permit history by company or individual name
• Market intelligence — track construction activity, demolition volume, or square-footage growth trends across Austin and surrounding jurisdictions
• Journalism & policy research — investigate construction trends, permit-processing timelines, or ETJ (extraterritorial jurisdiction) development activity
• Academic research — bulk-export permit data for urban-planning or housing studies

FAQ

What is the data source? The City of Austin Development Services Department's "Issued Construction Permits" dataset, published on the City of Austin Open Data portal (Socrata, dataset ID 3syk-w9eu) and refreshed regularly by the city.

Is this affiliated with the City of Austin? No. This is an independent, third-party actor built on Austin's public open-data API.

What area does this dataset cover? Permits issued within the City of Austin's full-purpose jurisdiction, its extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ), and several neighboring municipalities (Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Rollingwood, Sunset Valley, Pflugerville, and others) that share permitting with the city — see the jurisdiction field on each record.

What does permitClassMapped vs permitClass mean? permitClassMapped is a simplified Residential/Commercial rollup. permitClass is the detailed permit class code the city assigns (e.g. R- 101 Single Family Houses, C-1000 Commercial Remodel).

Why do some valuation fields (e.g. electricalValuation) not appear on every record? Each permit only carries the trade-specific valuation fields relevant to its scope of work. A pure electrical permit typically has electricalValuation but not buildingValuation; the actor omits fields the city didn't populate rather than showing 0 or null.

How does the address lookup (byAddress) work? Supply any part of the property's street address in streetAddress — the match is case-insensitive and partial (substring), since the source dataset stores the full address as a single text field rather than separate number/street columns.

What is a master permit number, and when should I use byMasterPermitNumber? Large or multi-trade projects (e.g. a big commercial build with separate building, electrical, mechanical, and plumbing permits) are often filed under one shared masterPermitNumber. Use byMasterPermitNumber to pull every sub-permit tied to that project in one call instead of looking each one up individually. Not every permit has a master permit number — smaller, standalone permits usually don't.

Why is sourceUrl sometimes a City of Austin permit-portal link and not the open-data API? Most rows carry a direct link to the permit's page on abc.austintexas.gov, the city's own public permit-search system — the actor uses that whenever the dataset provides it, since it's the most useful link for a human reader. On the rare row missing that link, the actor falls back to a direct Socrata API query that returns just that row.

How fresh is the data? The City of Austin Open Data portal refreshes this dataset on a regular schedule (typically daily). The actor always reads the latest published snapshot at run time.

Are there rate limits? The Socrata API allows unauthenticated access with reasonable limits. Supplying a free Socrata app token (optional) raises those limits, but the actor works without one.