# US Building Permits Scraper (`scrapyx/us-building-permits-scraper`) Actor

Issued building permits from the official open data of Chicago, Los Angeles, Austin and Seattle: permit type, status, address, valuation, description, contractor and owner/applicant contacts. Filter by date, type, work description, value and ZIP.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/scrapyx/us-building-permits-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Ibnu Adzim](https://apify.com/scrapyx) (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

from $0.84 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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 (Chicago, LA, Austin, Seattle)

**Building permits as the cities issue them**, from the official open data
of **Chicago, Los Angeles, Austin and Seattle**: permit number and type,
work class, status, application and issue dates, site address and ZIP,
coordinates, declared job value, work description, and the people on the
permit — contractors (with phone numbers in Austin), owners and other
contacts in Chicago, applicants in Austin — plus a link to the city's
record where one is published.

Filter by date, permit type, words in the work description (`solar`,
`pool`, `ADU`, `reroof`), minimum value and ZIP. No key, no login, no proxy.

### What it is for

- **Contractor and supplier leads** — every new-construction or
  renovation permit over $100k issued this month.
- **Trade-specific prospecting** — solar, roofing, pool, EV charger jobs by
  their description.
- **Market tracking** — construction activity and value by city and type.

### Input

| field | what it does |
| --- | --- |
| `cities` | `chicago`, `los_angeles`, `austin`, `seattle` — one search each. |
| `dateType` | `issued` (default, issued permits only) or `applied`. |
| `dateFrom` / `dateTo` | `YYYY-MM-DD`. Default: the last 30 days. |
| `permitTypeContains` | Words in the permit type (each city names types its own way). |
| `descriptionContains` | Words in the work description. |
| `minValuation` | Declared job value in dollars (see note 2). |
| `zipCodes` | ZIPs or prefixes (not available for Chicago). |
| `sortBy` | Newest or oldest first. |
| `maxItems` | Per city, default 200; `0` = all. |

### Things about this data worth knowing

#### 1. Seattle's list includes permits that were never issued

Seattle publishes applications too: 52,782 of its records have no issue
date. With `dateType: "issued"` (the default) only issued permits come back;
`applied` searches by application date and includes the rest.

#### 2. A value filter removes trade permits in Austin

Austin records a job value only on building permits. Its electrical,
plumbing, mechanical and driveway permits — 3,260 of about 4,000 issued in
September 2026 — have none, so `minValuation` leaves just building permits
there. Los Angeles stores the value as text; the Actor compares it as a
number.

#### 3. Contractors are named unevenly

Austin names a contractor on almost every permit (1,386 of 1,500), with a
phone number; Chicago on about 3 in 10 (it lists owners, architects,
tenants and contractors in up to 15 contact slots, all returned in
`contacts`); Seattle on under 1 in 10; Los Angeles' dataset has no
contractor field.

#### 4. Cities publish at different speeds

On 25 September 2026 the newest issue date was the 23rd in Chicago,
Austin and Seattle, and the 19th in Los Angeles. Each city's
summary shows `newestDateInData`.

### Output

One `BUILDING_PERMIT` row per permit (same fields for every city, the
city's own record under `source`) and one `SEARCH_SUMMARY` per city.

```json
{
  "recordType": "BUILDING_PERMIT",
  "city": "chicago",
  "permitNumber": "101046020",
  "permitType": "PERMIT - SIGNS",
  "issuedDate": "2024-09-18",
  "address": "7529 N CLARK ST",
  "valuation": 5500,
  "description": "INSTALLATION OF A WALL SIGN ON THE FRONT ELEVATION",
  "contractor": {"role": "CONTRACTOR-ELECTRICAL", "name": "3 S SUPPLY COMPANY", "city": "HOMER GLEN", "state": "IL", "zip": "60491"}
}
```

### Speed

1,000 permits per request, one request per second: 1,500 permits from each
of two cities took 9 seconds.

### Limits

- Four cities for now. New York City was evaluated and left out: its permit
  dataset stores dates as text, which rules out date filtering.

# Actor input Schema

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

One search per city.

## `dateType` (type: `string`):

Seattle's data also contains applications that were never issued; 'issued' leaves them out.

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

YYYY-MM-DD. Default: 30 days ago.

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

YYYY-MM-DD.

## `permitTypeContains` (type: `string`):

e.g. 'electrical', 'plumbing', 'new construction', 'roof' (city wording differs).

## `descriptionContains` (type: `string`):

e.g. 'solar', 'pool', 'ADU', 'reroof'.

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

Declared job value.

## `zipCodes` (type: `array`):

Not available for Chicago (no site ZIP in its data).

## `sortBy` (type: `string`):

By the chosen date.

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

0 = every match.

## `minRequestInterval` (type: `number`):

Never below 1 (the portals' robots.txt Crawl-delay).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "cities": [
    "chicago",
    "los_angeles",
    "austin",
    "seattle"
  ],
  "dateType": "issued",
  "dateFrom": "2026-09-01",
  "sortBy": "newest",
  "maxItems": 200,
  "minRequestInterval": 1
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `items` (type: `string`):

One row per scraped record. See the dataset's default view for field definitions.

# 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",
        "los_angeles",
        "austin",
        "seattle"
    ],
    "dateFrom": "2026-09-01"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("scrapyx/us-building-permits-scraper").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",
        "los_angeles",
        "austin",
        "seattle",
    ],
    "dateFrom": "2026-09-01",
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("scrapyx/us-building-permits-scraper").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",
    "los_angeles",
    "austin",
    "seattle"
  ],
  "dateFrom": "2026-09-01"
}' |
apify call scrapyx/us-building-permits-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/pR9BNmeLaogJvkqpn/builds/FNUh9W4fC5dMipw5p/openapi.json