# US Building Permits Scraper — Official City APIs (`ensorcelling_seabass/us-building-permits-official-apis`) Actor

Fresh building permits from NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, Austin and Seattle via official city open-data APIs. Filter by date, keyword and project value. Contractor names included where published — construction lead generation without fragile scraping.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/ensorcelling\_seabass/us-building-permits-official-apis.md
- **Developed by:** [AA](https://apify.com/ensorcelling_seabass) (community)
- **Categories:** Business, Lead generation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $5.00 / 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/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#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 APIs

Fresh building permits from **New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Austin, and Seattle**, pulled straight from each city's official open-data API and normalized into one clean dataset.

Built for **construction lead generation**: every new permit is a homeowner or developer who just committed to a project — roofing, solar, HVAC, plumbing, demolition, renovation — with the address, project value, and (where published) the contractor on file.

No HTML scraping, no proxies, no breakage when a website changes, no terms-of-service risk — these are the same public APIs the cities themselves publish.

### What you get per permit

| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| `city` | chicago |
| `permitNumber` | 100123456 |
| `permitType` | PERMIT - RENOVATION/ALTERATION |
| `description` | Replace roof covering and install new gutters |
| `address` | 835 N Michigan Ave |
| `valuation` | 76938 |
| `issuedDate` | 2026-08-18 |
| `status` | Active |
| `contractorName` | Example Building Consulting LLC |

### Use cases

- **Trade contractor leads** — filter by keyword ("roof", "solar", "plumbing") and minimum project value to get a daily feed of funded projects in your service area.
- **Building-materials & equipment sales** — new permits = active job sites that need supplies.
- **Market intelligence** — track construction activity, project values, and busiest contractors by city.
- **Real-estate research** — renovation and demolition signals by neighborhood.

### Input

- **Cities**: any combination of the five covered cities.
- **Issued since**: ISO date; default last 30 days.
- **Keyword filter**: matches permit type + description.
- **Minimum project value** and **max permits per city**.

### Scheduling

Run daily on an [Apify schedule](https://docs.apify.com/platform/schedules) and push new permits to Google Sheets, your CRM, or Slack via integrations.

***

Data from official municipal open-data portals (NYC Open Data, Chicago Data Portal, DataSF, City of Austin, Seattle Open Data), used per each portal's open-data terms. This actor is independent and unaffiliated with any city government.

# Actor input Schema

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

Which cities to pull permits from.

## `issuedSince` (type: `string`):

ISO date (YYYY-MM-DD). Only permits issued/approved on or after this date. Default: last 30 days.

## `keyword` (type: `string`):

Only keep permits whose type or description contains this word, e.g. "roof", "solar", "demolition", "plumbing". Empty = all.

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

Skip permits below this project cost (also skips permits with no stated value). 0 = no minimum.

## `maxItemsPerCity` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many permits per city.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "cities": [
    "nyc",
    "chicago",
    "san-francisco",
    "austin",
    "seattle"
  ],
  "issuedSince": "",
  "keyword": "",
  "minValuation": 0,
  "maxItemsPerCity": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `dataset` (type: `string`):

Dataset containing all fetched building permits

# 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 = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ensorcelling_seabass/us-building-permits-official-apis").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 = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ensorcelling_seabass/us-building-permits-official-apis").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 '{}' |
apify call ensorcelling_seabass/us-building-permits-official-apis --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

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/ptpAwujcpywB7ahX8/builds/qapoNAe27zqUtvT4D/openapi.json