# US Building Permits Scraper (Multi-City Construction Leads) (`rejoiceful_xaphoon/us-building-permits`) Actor

- **URL**: https://apify.com/rejoiceful_xaphoon/us-building-permits.md
- **Developed by:** [Open Records Data](https://apify.com/rejoiceful_xaphoon) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Real estate, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$3.00 / 1,000 permit 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?

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 Scraper (Multi-City Construction Leads)

Get **fresh building permits from 11 major US cities in one clean, normalized dataset**: what is being built, where, for how much, and which contractor company pulled the permit. Filter by issue date, keyword, permit type and project value, then send the results straight to your CRM, spreadsheet or lead-routing workflow.

No API keys, no logins, no city-by-city wrangling. Every city's open-data portal is mapped into the same schema for you.

### Why use it

- **One schema, 11 cities**: NYC, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Cincinnati, Mesa and Montgomery County (MD). Same field names everywhere, values as real numbers, dates as `YYYY-MM-DD`.
- **Fresh data**: pulled live from each city's official open-data portal (most update daily). Around 30,000 permits are issued across these cities every month.
- **Lead-ready filters**: `keywords` (roof, solar, pool, HVAC, ADU, demolition…), permit type, minimum project value, "only permits with a contractor company".
- **Fast**: filtering happens on the city servers, so 2,000 permits across all cities come back in a few seconds.
- **Privacy-safe by default**: homeowner and applicant personal names, phone numbers and e-mails are never returned. Contractor names are included only when they are business names, and e-mails/phone numbers are scrubbed from free-text descriptions.

### Who it's for

- **Roofing, solar, HVAC, pool, windows and remodeling contractors** looking for active jobs and new homeowners to reach.
- **Building-materials and equipment sales teams** tracking which contractors are busiest in each market.
- **Construction-data, proptech and real-estate analysts** measuring development activity, new housing units and project values.
- **Subcontractors** finding general contractors on large new-construction projects.

### Supported cities

| Key | City | Source dataset |
|---|---|---|
| `chicago` | Chicago, IL | data.cityofchicago.org `ydr8-5enu` |
| `new_york` | New York City, NY (DOB NOW: Build approved permits) | data.cityofnewyork.us `rbx6-tga4` |
| `los_angeles` | Los Angeles, CA (2020–present) | data.lacity.org `pi9x-tg5x` |
| `san_francisco` | San Francisco, CA | data.sf.gov `i98e-djp9` |
| `seattle` | Seattle, WA | data.seattle.gov `76t5-zqzr` |
| `austin` | Austin, TX | data.austintexas.gov `3syk-w9eu` |
| `new_orleans` | New Orleans, LA | data.nola.gov `rcm3-fn58` |
| `baton_rouge` | Baton Rouge, LA (East Baton Rouge Parish) | data.brla.gov `7fq7-8j7r` |
| `cincinnati` | Cincinnati, OH | data.cincinnati-oh.gov `uhjb-xac9` |
| `mesa` | Mesa, AZ | citydata.mesaaz.gov `dzpk-hxfb` |
| `montgomery_county_md` | Montgomery County, MD (commercial permits) | data.montgomerycountymd.gov `i26v-w6bd` |

More cities are on the way. Tell us which one you need in the Issues tab.

### Input example

```json
{
  "cities": ["austin", "seattle", "los_angeles"],
  "issuedWithinDays": 7,
  "keywords": ["roof", "re-roof"],
  "minValue": 10000,
  "requireContractor": true,
  "maxItemsPerCity": 200,
  "maxItems": 1000
}
```

Use `dateFrom` / `dateTo` (YYYY-MM-DD) instead of `issuedWithinDays` for a fixed window or a historical pull.

### Output example

```json
{
  "city": "Chicago",
  "state": "IL",
  "cityKey": "chicago",
  "permitNumber": "101081192",
  "permitType": "PERMIT - NEW CONSTRUCTION",
  "workDescription": "NEW CONSTRUCTION OF A 52 UNIT SENIOR RESIDENTIAL BUILDING ...",
  "status": "ACTIVE",
  "issueDate": "2026-10-09",
  "appliedDate": "2026-04-07",
  "estimatedValue": 25000000,
  "totalFees": 60460.8,
  "address": "8332 S DR MARTIN L KING JR DR",
  "zip": null,
  "latitude": 41.7428113,
  "longitude": -87.614845,
  "contractorName": "SKENDER CONSTRUCTION LLC",
  "allContractors": ["SKENDER CONSTRUCTION LLC", "JOLEN ELECTRIC, INC", "CHI-TOWN PLUMBERS INC"],
  "sourceUrl": null,
  "datasetId": "ydr8-5enu",
  "datasetUrl": "https://data.cityofchicago.org/d/ydr8-5enu"
}
```

#### Fields

`city`, `state`, `cityKey`, `permitNumber`, `permitType`, `workType`, `workDescription`, `status`, `issueDate`, `appliedDate`, `estimatedValue` (number, USD), `address`, `zip`, `latitude`, `longitude`, `contractorName` (primary contractor company), `allContractors`, `sourceUrl` (link to the city's permit record where the city provides one), `datasetId`, `datasetUrl`. Some cities add extras such as `totalFees`, `contractorTrade`, `contractorLicense`, `housingUnitsAdded` (Seattle), `solar` / `evCharger` flags (Los Angeles) and `bin` / `bbl` (NYC).

### Tips

- **Daily lead feed**: schedule the actor every morning with `issuedWithinDays: 1` and connect it to Google Sheets, HubSpot, Zapier or Make.
- **Big projects only**: set `minValue: 1000000` and `permitTypes: ["new"]`.
- **Fair split across cities**: use `maxItemsPerCity` so a big city like NYC does not use up your whole `maxItems`.

### Notes

- Data comes from official municipal open-data portals and is as complete as each city publishes it. Not every city publishes every field (for example San Francisco, Los Angeles and Montgomery County do not publish contractor names; Chicago does not publish ZIP codes).
- Project values are the values declared on the permit application.
- Personal names of owners and applicants are deliberately excluded.

### Pricing

Pay per result: **$3 per 1,000 permits** ($0.003 each), plus Apify platform usage. You are charged only for permits returned, so 1,000 permits cost $3. Use `maxItems` to cap cost.

# Actor input Schema

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

Which cities to search. Leave empty to search all supported cities.

## `issuedWithinDays` (type: `integer`):

Only permits issued in the last N days (default 30 when no dates are set). Set 1-7 and schedule daily or weekly for fresh leads.

## `dateFrom` (type: `string`):

Start of the issue-date window. Overrides 'Issued within last N days'.

## `dateTo` (type: `string`):

End of the issue-date window (inclusive).

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

Match ANY of these words in the work description or permit type (case-insensitive), e.g. roof, solar, pool, HVAC, demolition, ADU.

## `permitTypes` (type: `array`):

Match ANY of these in the permit type / work class fields only, e.g. 'new construction', 'electrical', 'plumbing', 'sign'.

## `minValue` (type: `integer`):

Only permits whose declared job value / valuation is at least this amount.

## `requireContractor` (type: `boolean`):

Skip permits that have no contractor business name (useful for B2B lead lists).

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

Cap per city so one large city does not crowd out the others. Defaults to the overall max.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum permits to return across all cities.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "cities": [
    "chicago",
    "austin",
    "seattle"
  ],
  "issuedWithinDays": 30,
  "keywords": [
    "roof"
  ],
  "requireContractor": false,
  "maxItems": 1000
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

All scraped records in the default dataset

# 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": [
        "chicago",
        "austin",
        "seattle"
    ],
    "issuedWithinDays": 30,
    "keywords": [
        "roof"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("rejoiceful_xaphoon/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": [
        "chicago",
        "austin",
        "seattle",
    ],
    "issuedWithinDays": 30,
    "keywords": ["roof"],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("rejoiceful_xaphoon/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": [
    "chicago",
    "austin",
    "seattle"
  ],
  "issuedWithinDays": 30,
  "keywords": [
    "roof"
  ]
}' |
apify call rejoiceful_xaphoon/us-building-permits --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,rejoiceful_xaphoon/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/VNROEvbLd3ehUvF8d/builds/98RiDYh9S4zQmafSg/openapi.json