# US Building Permits — 11 Cities, Official Open Data (`nefes-tools/us-building-permits`) Actor

Fresh building permits from New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Austin, Seattle and 6 more US cities in one table: address, work description, estimated cost, permit type, dates, contractor company. Keyword and cost filters, only-new mode for daily leads.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/nefes-tools/us-building-permits.md
- **Developed by:** [Erich Michal Sikora](https://apify.com/nefes-tools) (community)
- **Categories:** Real estate, Lead generation, Business
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $3.00 / 1,000 permits

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?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## US Building Permits — 11 Cities, Official Open Data

**Get fresh building permits from 11 US cities in one clean table:** job-site address, what is being built, estimated
job cost, permit type, issue date and (where published) the contractor company. Filter by keyword and cost, schedule it
daily and receive only permits you have not seen yet.

| City | Permits per month\* | Contractor company |
|---|---|---|
| New York, NY | ~15,000 | ✅ |
| Los Angeles, CA | ~5,800 | – |
| Austin, TX | ~5,100 | ✅ |
| Chicago, IL | ~3,000 | – |
| San Francisco, CA | ~1,500 | – |
| New Orleans, LA | ~1,400 | – |
| Cincinnati, OH | ~850 | – |
| Baton Rouge, LA | ~750 | – |
| Seattle, WA | ~550 | ✅ |
| Mesa, AZ | ~430 | – |
| Montgomery County, MD (commercial) | ~120 | – |

\* Permits issued 20 Aug – 18 Sep 2026, counted from the official datasets.

### Who uses it

- **Contractors and trades** (solar, roofing, HVAC, pools, electrical, windows): see new projects in your area as soon as the city publishes the permit.
- **Building-material suppliers and equipment rental**: spot large new-construction and renovation jobs by cost and location.
- **Real-estate investors and analysts**: track construction activity, ADUs, new housing units and remodel trends by ZIP code.
- **Market research and lead-gen agencies**: feed a CRM or dashboard with a daily, uniform permit feed across cities.

### What you get (one row per permit)

```json
{
  "city": "New York",
  "state": "NY",
  "permitNumber": "Q01441961-I1-SL",
  "permitType": "Solar",
  "workType": "Initial Permit",
  "description": "Installation of solar panels, rooftop, grid tied, railed, 23 modules, 9.43 KW",
  "status": "Permit Issued",
  "appliedDate": null,
  "issuedDate": "2026-09-21",
  "address": "150-36 114 ROAD, Queens",
  "zipCode": "11434",
  "latitude": 40.685546,
  "longitude": -73.792973,
  "estimatedCost": 47150,
  "squareFeet": null,
  "housingUnits": null,
  "contractorCompany": "MOMENTUM SOLAR",
  "permitUrl": null,
  "sourceDataset": "https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/rbx6-tga4",
  "fetchedAt": "2026-09-23T12:00:00.000Z"
}
```

Every row has the same fields in every city; a field is `null` when that city does not publish it.
Export as JSON, CSV, Excel or connect via API, Make, Zapier or n8n.

### How to use

1. Pick cities (default: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles).
2. Optional: keywords in the work description (`solar`, `roof`, `HVAC`, `pool`, `new building`, `demolition`…), a minimum estimated cost, and a date range (default: issued in the last 7 days).
3. Run. Results from the selected cities are mixed evenly until **Maximum permits** is reached.
4. For a daily lead feed, turn on **Only new since the last run** and add a [schedule](https://docs.apify.com/platform/schedules). You pay only for permits you have not received before.

Example input — solar and roofing jobs over $20,000 in Los Angeles and Austin in the last 30 days:

```json
{
  "cities": ["los-angeles", "austin"],
  "keywords": ["solar", "roof"],
  "minEstimatedCost": 20000,
  "daysBack": 30,
  "maxResults": 500
}
```

### Pricing

Pay per event: you pay **only for permits delivered** to your dataset. No results = nothing to pay for results.
The run stops by itself when it reaches your maximum cost per run. Most runs finish in seconds and need only 256 MB of memory.

### Data sources and privacy

All data comes from the cities' official open-data portals (Socrata Open Data API), which publish permits as public
records for anyone to reuse. No login, no scraping of protected pages.

**No personal data:** names of owners, applicants and individual license holders, phone numbers and e-mails are
left out on purpose, and e-mails/phone numbers inside descriptions are removed. The contractor field is filled only
where the city publishes it as a business name.

### FAQ

**How fresh is the data?** Cities update their datasets daily or several times a week; most permits appear within a few days of issue.

**Why is the cost empty for some permits?** Some permits (e.g. many electrical or sign permits) have no declared job
value. With a minimum cost filter, those permits are skipped.

**Can you add my city?** Yes — open an issue with the city name. Cities with an official open-data permit feed can be added quickly.

**What if a city portal is down?** The other cities still deliver; the run summary (`SUMMARY` in the key-value store) lists permits and errors per city.

# Actor input Schema

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

Which city permit registries to search. Results are mixed evenly across the selected cities.

## `keywords` (type: `array`):

Match any of these words in the permit's work description, e.g. "solar", "roof", "HVAC", "pool", "new building", "demolition". Leave empty for all permits.

## `daysBack` (type: `integer`):

How far back to look. 0 = today only. Ignored when "Issued from" is set. Cities publish with a delay of a few days.

## `issuedFrom` (type: `string`):

Optional start date (YYYY-MM-DD). Overrides "last N days".

## `issuedTo` (type: `string`):

Optional end date (YYYY-MM-DD), inclusive.

## `minEstimatedCost` (type: `integer`):

Only permits with a declared job cost of at least this amount. Permits without a stated cost are skipped when this is set.

## `onlyNew` (type: `boolean`):

Remember delivered permits and return only new ones next time (per combination of cities, keywords and cost). Ideal for a daily schedule: you pay only for permits you have not seen.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many permits in total (you pay per permit).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "cities": [
    "new-york",
    "chicago",
    "los-angeles"
  ],
  "daysBack": 7,
  "onlyNew": false,
  "maxResults": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `permits` (type: `string`):

One row per permit: city, address, work description, permit type, estimated cost, issue date, contractor company and links.

## `summary` (type: `string`):

Permits per city, errors, why the run stopped and the filters used.

# 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 = {
    "cities": [
        "new-york",
        "chicago",
        "los-angeles"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("nefes-tools/us-building-permits").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 = { "cities": [
        "new-york",
        "chicago",
        "los-angeles",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("nefes-tools/us-building-permits").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 '{
  "cities": [
    "new-york",
    "chicago",
    "los-angeles"
  ]
}' |
apify call nefes-tools/us-building-permits --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/7KOClOXHbackrGEMc/builds/9Si9TEfrCDJ1CxmNa/openapi.json