Building Permits Scraper — 12 US Cities Open Data

Pull building & construction permits from 12 US cities into one clean, normalized schema — no API key, no account, no anti-bot. Every city publishes permits on its own open-data portal with its own column names; this actor translates all of them into the same record, so you can query a dozen jurisdictions as one feed.

Built for contractors, roofers, solar & HVAC installers, remodelers, suppliers and real-estate investors who want fresh permit leads and market intelligence — and for analysts tracking construction activity.

Why this actor

• No API keys, no login, no proxy budget — every source is an official government open-data API (Socrata or ArcGIS FeatureServer).
• 12 cities, one schema — city, permit_number, permit_type, status, issue_date, application_date, address, work_description, valuation, contractor_name, applicant, latitude, longitude, source, source_type, source_url, scraped_at.
• Server-side filtering — date and permit-type filters are applied by the source APIs, so runs are fast and cheap.
• Honest nulls — not every city publishes every field (e.g. Chicago has no status column, Cincinnati has no coordinates). Missing values come back as null, never faked.
• Pay per permit — a single low per-result price, plus a one-time start fee.

Supported cities

City	Source	Portal
Chicago, IL	Socrata	data.cityofchicago.org
New York, NY	Socrata	data.cityofnewyork.us (DOB NOW)
Los Angeles, CA	Socrata	data.lacity.org
San Francisco, CA	Socrata	data.sfgov.org
Austin, TX	Socrata	data.austintexas.gov
Seattle, WA	Socrata	data.seattle.gov
Cincinnati, OH	Socrata	data.cincinnati-oh.gov
Mesa, AZ	Socrata	citydata.mesaaz.gov
Montgomery County, MD	Socrata	data.montgomerycountymd.gov
Baton Rouge, LA	Socrata	data.brla.gov
Washington, DC	ArcGIS	maps2.dcgis.dc.gov
West Sacramento, CA	ArcGIS	gis.cityofwestsacramento.org

Input

{
  "cities": ["austin", "los_angeles", "baton_rouge"],
  "dateFrom": "2025-01-01",
  "permitType": "roof",
  "maxItems": 500
}

Field	Type	Description
cities	array	City keys to scrape (multi-select). Leave empty to scrape all supported cities.
dateFrom	date	Only permits issued on/after this date (YYYY-MM-DD). Applied server-side per city.
permitType	string	Keyword filter matched against permit type and work description — e.g. roof, solar, pool, electrical, demolition, new construction.
maxItems	integer	Max permits per city (3 cities × 500 = up to 1,500 rows). Default 1,000.

Output (one item per permit)

{
  "city": "Austin, TX",
  "cityKey": "austin",
  "permit_number": "2026-104132 BP",
  "permit_type": "Building Permit - New",
  "status": "Active",
  "issue_date": "2026-07-10",
  "application_date": "2026-04-20",
  "address": "4102 CAT HOLLOW DR AUSTIN TX 78731",
  "work_description": "New construction in-ground pool and spa.",
  "valuation": 0.0,
  "contractor_name": "LOHR Homes",
  "applicant": "Gil Lohr",
  "latitude": 30.3623778,
  "longitude": -97.76570347,
  "source": "data.austintexas.gov",
  "source_type": "socrata",
  "source_url": "https://data.austintexas.gov/d/3syk-w9eu",
  "scraped_at": "2026-07-10T21:56:20Z"
}

Use cases

• 📈 Lead generation — a roofing company pulls every roofing permit issued since January across Austin, LA and Baton Rouge: a ready-made call list.
• 🏗️ Market intelligence — track construction activity and valuations by city, type and time.
• 🕵️ Property research — enrich addresses with permit history for due diligence.
• ⏰ Automation — run on a schedule (e.g. weekly) to watch new permits in your territory, pipe results into a CRM or a Telegram alert.

Run it from your code

Python (Apify SDK):

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR-APIFY-TOKEN")

run_input = {
    "cities": ["austin", "baton_rouge"],
    "dateFrom": "2026-01-01",
    "permitType": "roof",
}

run = client.actor("darknezz/building-permits-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)
for permit in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(permit["permit_number"], permit["address"], permit["contractor_name"])

cURL (one-liner, sync):

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/darknezz~building-permits-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"cities":["austin"],"dateFrom":"2026-06-01","permitType":"solar"}'

Worked example — a real run for permitType: "pool" in Austin returns rows such as 2026-104132 BP — "New construction in-ground pool and spa." at 4102 Cat Hollow Dr, contractor LOHR Homes, valuation $0.0 (city-reported), issued 2026-07-10. Every row carries the source portal URL so you can verify it in one click.

FAQ

Do I need an API key? No. All 12 sources are public government open-data APIs.

Why is a field null? That city does not publish it in a machine-readable form (e.g. Cincinnati has no coordinates, Chicago no status column). Nothing is invented.

How fresh is the data? Each city refreshes its own portal on its own schedule — most are daily. scraped_at on every row tells you exactly when the record was pulled.

Can I add a city? Yes — the actor is built as a config table. Point a new city at its Socrata dataset or ArcGIS FeatureServer, list the date field and map columns; no fetch-layer changes needed.

Which permit types can I filter by? Any text that appears in the city's permit-type or work-description columns — roof, solar, pool, electrical, demolition, new construction, alteration, etc. Filtering is a keyword match, so combine it with dateFrom to scope tightly.

Is this a consumer report? No. This data is aggregated from public government records for market research and lead generation. It must not be used for any FCRA-covered purpose (credit, employment, insurance, or tenant screening).

Limitations

• Not every city is covered — the actor ships with 12 cities; other jurisdictions need a config entry (see "Can I add a city?").
• Some old ArcGIS servers are slow — a few cities respond best with lighter query parameters; the actor automatically falls back to a simpler query when a server rejects the first form.
• Placeholder permits — some cities pre-issue "not yet issued" placeholder rows; these are detected and skipped.
• Empty results are free — if your filter matches nothing, the run succeeds with zero items and you are charged nothing beyond the start fee.

Pricing

Pay per permit extracted (permit-extracted event) + a one-time start fee. No charge for empty results.