US Building Permit Scraper

Pull building permits from US city open data portals. Built for construction lead generation - solar installers, roofing contractors, HVAC companies, and suppliers who need fresh permit data to find projects before competitors do.

What it returns

Every permit record includes:

Field	Description
city, state	City and state
permitNumber	Permit or job number
permitType	Type of permit (e.g. New Construction, Renovation, Electrical)
address	Full street address
projectValue	Reported construction value in USD (where available)
contractorName	Licensed contractor on the permit
contractorLicense	Contractor license number
contractorLicenseType	License type (General Contractor, Electrician, etc.)
issueDate	Date permit was issued
status	Permit status (where available)
description	Work description (where available)
latitude, longitude	Coordinates (where available)

Supported cities (36 total)

City	State	Contractor data	Project value	Data freshness
Chicago	IL	Name + contact type	Yes	Current (daily updates)
New York City (or NYC)	NY	License holder name + license no.	Yes	Current (DOB NOW dataset)
San Francisco (or SF)	CA	None in this dataset	Yes	Current
Los Angeles (or LA)	CA	Business name + license	Yes	Typically 12-24 months behind
Seattle	WA	Company name	Yes	Current (daily updates)
Tacoma	WA	Company name	Yes	Current (all Accela permit types)
Austin	TX	Company name + contact name	Yes	Current (daily updates)
Cincinnati	OH	Company name	Yes	Current (daily updates)
Orlando	FL	Company name	Yes	Current (daily updates)
Baton Rouge	LA	Contractor name	Yes	Current
New Orleans (or NOLA)	LA	None in this dataset	Yes	Current (2018-present)
Minneapolis	MN	Company name	Yes	Current
Baltimore	MD	None in this dataset	Yes	Current
Tempe	AZ	Company name + license	Yes	Current (weekly updates)
Buffalo	NY	Applicant name + license	Yes	Current (2000-present)
Dallas	TX	Company name	Yes	Data not updated since Jan 2024
Denver	CO	Company name	Yes	Current (daily updates) - residential permits only
Fort Worth	TX	None in this dataset	Yes	Current
Nashville	TN	Contact name	Yes	Current (daily updates, rolling 3-year window)
Norfolk	VA	None in this dataset	Yes	Current (daily weekday updates)
Raleigh	NC	Company name + license	Yes	Current (daily updates, 2000-present)
San Diego County	CA	Company name	Yes	Current (county-wide)
Reno	NV	None*	None*	Current
Sparks	NV	None*	None*	Current
Washoe County	NV	None*	None*	Current
Maricopa County	AZ	None	None	Current
Douglas County (or Douglas)	NV	None*	None*	Current
Louisville	KY	Company name	Yes	Current
Gainesville	FL	Company name	None	Current (daily updates)
Sacramento	CA	Company name	Yes	Current (9-year archive, monthly updates)
Philadelphia	PA	Company name	None	Current
Miami	FL	Company name	Yes	Current (2014-present)
Greensboro	NC	Company name	Yes	Current
Anaheim	CA	Company name	Yes	Current
Columbus	OH	Company name	Yes	Current (2000-present)
Washington DC	DC	Permit applicant name	None	Current year (2026)

* Contractor and project value data exists on detail pages but is blocked from cloud IPs by Cloudflare. Planned for a future update.

Note on Los Angeles: The LA open data portal permit datasets are not regularly updated and currently reflect data approximately 12-24 months behind.

Note on Dallas: The Dallas open data permit dataset has not been updated since January 2024. Historical data only.

Note on Maricopa County: Covers the county system (unincorporated areas and municipalities using the county's permitting system). Also accessible as "Phoenix" or "Maricopa".

More cities added regularly. Supports Socrata, ArcGIS, and Accela ONE open data portals.

Example inputs

Get all new construction permits in Chicago issued this year:

{
  "cities": ["Chicago"],
  "issuedAfter": "2026-01-01",
  "permitTypes": ["new construction"],
  "maxResultsPerSource": 1000
}

Multi-city lead gen sweep:

{
  "cities": ["Chicago", "Los Angeles", "New York City", "Seattle", "Austin", "Orlando"],
  "issuedAfter": "2026-04-01",
  "maxResultsPerSource": 500
}

High-value projects only (Chicago):

{
  "cities": ["Chicago"],
  "issuedAfter": "2026-01-01",
  "minProjectValue": 50000
}

Nevada permits (Reno metro + surrounding county):

{
  "cities": ["Reno", "Sparks", "Washoe County"],
  "issuedAfter": "2026-01-01"
}

Adding your own city

Any city running Socrata open data can be added via customEndpoints:

{
  "customEndpoints": [
    {
      "domain": "data.example.gov",
      "datasetId": "your-dataset-id",
      "cityName": "My City",
      "stateCode": "ST",
      "fields": {
        "permitNumber": "application_permit_number",
        "permitType": "permit_type",
        "issueDate": "issue_date",
        "streetNumber": "address",
        "contractorName": "applicant_name"
      }
    }
  ],
  "issuedAfter": "2026-01-01"
}

Find your city's dataset by searching [your city] open data building permits and looking for a Socrata portal (typically named data.[city].gov).

How permits become leads

A permit issued this week means a project is about to start. The lead window is short - typically 2-6 weeks before contractors are already on site. Run this actor on a weekly or daily schedule to catch permits while they're still warm.

Example workflow:

1. Run weekly on target cities filtered to relevant permit types
2. Export to CSV and import to your CRM
3. Call the contractor (or property owner) within 48 hours of issue date

Integrations

Connect permit data to your CRM automatically with Zapier or Make:

• Zapier template: Building permits - Google Sheets - New permits added to a spreadsheet automatically after each run
• Zapier template: Building permits - HubSpot - New permits created as HubSpot contacts/companies (coming soon)
• Make template - Full workflow with iterator for large permit pulls (coming soon)

No code required. Connect in 10 minutes.

Pricing

$1.50 per 1,000 permits. Results from all cities in a single run count toward the same total.

Data sources

Data is sourced from official government open data portals. Socrata and ArcGIS cities are accessed via REST API. Accela ONE cities (Reno, Sparks, Washoe County, Douglas County) are scraped from the public-facing citizen portal. All datasets are public record.