US Building Permits Scraper (6 Major Cities)

Get fresh building permits from 6 major U.S. cities in one consistent format: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Austin and Seattle. Each row has the address, work description, permit type, project cost and status, plus owner and contractor names (and contractor phone in Austin) where the city publishes them.

What you can use it for

• Contractor and home-services lead gen: roofers, solar, HVAC, pools, kitchens, windows, landscaping.
• Suppliers: find active job sites and the contractors running them.
• Real estate and investors: spot renovation and new construction activity by area.
• Market research: construction activity by city and type.

How it works

The actor queries each city's official open-data portal, filters by date, keywords and cost, and maps every city's different column names into one schema.

Input example

{
  "cities": [
    "austin",
    "chicago",
    "new-york"
  ],
  "keywords": [
    "roof",
    "solar"
  ],
  "daysBack": 7,
  "minCost": 10000,
  "onlyWithContractor": true,
  "maxItems": 500
}

Every option is described in the Input tab. Set Max results to control how much you pay for.

Output example

{
  "city": "Austin, TX",
  "permitNumber": "2026-128064 EP",
  "issuedDate": "2026-10-03",
  "address": "6403 JOHNNY MORRIS RD UNIT 12",
  "neighborhood": "Council district 1",
  "zipCode": "78724",
  "permitType": "Electrical Permit",
  "workClass": "Residential - Repair",
  "description": "Replace panel and meter with permanent pole",
  "estimatedCost": 1500.0,
  "status": "Active",
  "ownerName": null,
  "ownerAddress": null,
  "contractorName": "Wise Electrical Solutions LLC",
  "contractorContact": "Jane Doe",
  "contractorLicense": "Electrical Contractor",
  "contractorAddress": "123 Example St",
  "contractorPhone": "512XXXXXXX",
  "applicantName": null,
  "applicantPhone": null,
  "latitude": 30.29759288,
  "longitude": -97.64966369,
  "url": "https://abc.austintexas.gov/web/permit/public-search-other?t_detail=1&t_selected_folderrsn=13780627"
}

Download results as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or connect them to Google Sheets, Zapier, Make or your own code through the Apify API.

How to use it

1. Click Try for free (new Apify accounts get monthly free credit).
2. Fill in the input, for example to get every new permit in Austin and Seattle from the last 7 days.
3. Click Start and download the results as Excel, CSV, JSON or HTML, or open them in Google Sheets.

How much does it cost?

You pay only for results: $5 per 1,000 building permits (about $0.50 for 100), plus a fraction of a cent per run. Set Max results to cap your spend. Apify's free plan credit covers a lot of test runs.

Integrations and API

Use it as a BuildZoom or Construction Monitor alternative for contractor leads. Run it on a schedule and send new results to Google Sheets, Slack, email, Zapier, Make, n8n or your own webhook, or call it from any language through the Apify API. It also works as a tool for AI agents through Apify's MCP server.

Scheduling

Use Apify Schedules to run the actor daily or weekly and get only the latest records, for example with Days back set to 1 or 7.

FAQ

Which fields are available per city?

Owner names: New York, Chicago. Contractor names: New York, Chicago, Austin, Seattle. Contractor phone: Austin. All cities have address, description, type and status.

How fresh is the data?

Most cities update daily. Los Angeles publishes with about a one-week delay.

Can you add my city?

Open an issue on the actor and we will add cities with an open-data permit feed.

Something broken or missing?

Open an issue in the Issues tab and it will be fixed.