# US Building Permits by City, County & State (Census BPS) (`wishbone_data/census-building-permits`) Actor

New residential building permits (buildings, units and construction value by 1-unit, 2-unit, 3-4 unit and 5+ unit structures) for every US state, county and permit-issuing place, monthly, year-to-date or annual, from the Census Bureau Building Permits Survey.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/wishbone\_data/census-building-permits.md
- **Developed by:** [Walter Washburn](https://apify.com/wishbone_data) (community)
- **Categories:** Real estate, Business
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

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 Data Scraper - City, County & State (Census BPS)

Download **new residential building permits for every US state, county and city/town** - buildings, housing units and construction value, split into **single-family, 2-unit, 3-4 unit and 5+ unit (multifamily)** - monthly, year-to-date or annual, straight from the **U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS)**.

One tidy row per place per period. No API key, no scraping of city portals.

### What does this Actor do?

The Census Bureau publishes BPS as dozens of fixed-layout text files per month (one per geography level and region). This Actor:

- finds the **latest month published** automatically,
- downloads every file for your periods and geography,
- parses them into named columns (`units1`, `units5plus`, `totalValueUsd`...),
- **normalises value to US dollars** (state files are published in thousands - converted for you),
- adds totals, FIPS codes, CBSA/CSA and population for places,
- filters by state, name and minimum units.

### Who uses it?

- **Building-products and construction-materials companies** - size markets and set territory targets by county (single-family vs multifamily demand).
- **Home builders, developers and land teams** - spot fast-growing cities and counties.
- **Lenders, REITs and real-estate analysts** - track pipeline and supply growth.
- **Economic developers, planners and journalists** - compare permit trends across jurisdictions.
- **BI / data teams** - schedule it monthly into a warehouse or Google Sheets.

### Input examples

Washington counties, each month of 2026 so far:

```json
{
  "geoLevel": "county",
  "periodType": "monthly",
  "startPeriod": "2026-01",
  "states": ["WA"],
  "minTotalUnits": 1
}
```

Annual permits for Austin and Houston, 2023-2025:

```json
{
  "geoLevel": "place",
  "periodType": "annual",
  "startPeriod": "2023",
  "endPeriod": "2025",
  "states": ["TX"],
  "nameContains": ["Austin", "Houston"]
}
```

Year-to-date for all states plus US, regional and division totals:

```json
{ "geoLevel": "state", "periodType": "ytd" }
```

### Output example

```json
{
  "period": "2026-08",
  "periodType": "monthly",
  "geoLevel": "county",
  "rowType": "county",
  "stateCode": "WA",
  "fips5": "53005",
  "name": "Benton County",
  "bldgs1": 64,
  "units1": 64,
  "value1Usd": 21980619,
  "bldgs2": 1,
  "units2": 2,
  "value2Usd": 311182,
  "units3to4": 0,
  "bldgs5plus": 1,
  "units5plus": 5,
  "value5plusUsd": 667406,
  "totalBuildings": 66,
  "totalUnits": 71,
  "totalValueUsd": 22959207,
  "sourceUrl": "https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/County/co2608c.txt"
}
```

| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `period`, `periodType` | `YYYY-MM` (monthly/YTD) or `YYYY` (annual) |
| `geoLevel`, `rowType` | state / county / place (state level also returns national, region and division totals) |
| `stateCode`, `stateFips`, `countyFips`, `fips5` | Geography codes |
| `placeId6`, `fipsPlace`, `cbsa`, `csa`, `population`, `zip` | Place-level identifiers |
| `bldgs*`, `units*`, `value*Usd` | 1-unit, 2-unit, 3-4 unit, 5+ unit structures |
| `totalBuildings`, `totalUnits`, `totalValueUsd` | Sums across all structure sizes |
| `reported_*` | Optional: reported-only figures (no imputation), state and county levels |

### Pricing

Pay-per-event:

| Event | Price |
|---|---|
| Actor start | $0.005 per run |
| `permit-record` | **$1.00 per 1,000 rows** |

Examples: all Washington counties for 8 months (~300 rows) ~ $0.30. Every permit-issuing place in the US for one month (~20,000 rows) ~ $20 - use `states`, `nameContains` or `minTotalUnits` to keep only what you need.

### FAQ

**Is this legal?** Yes. The Building Permits Survey is published by the U.S. Census Bureau for public use; as a U.S. Government work it is in the public domain. The Actor downloads the Bureau's published files at a polite rate. The data are aggregate counts per jurisdiction - no personal or property-owner data.

**What exactly is counted?** New privately-owned housing units authorised by building permits. It does not include commercial buildings, remodels or demolitions. Value is the construction cost reported on the permit.

**Why do monthly numbers differ from the annual file?** Monthly place data is partly imputed for non-reporting places; the annual file is revised. Use `annual` for final numbers and `reported_*` columns to see non-imputed figures.

**When is new data available?** The Census Bureau publishes monthly figures a few weeks after month end. The Actor always detects and uses the latest month available.

**Is metro (CBSA) level available?** Place rows carry `cbsa` and `csa` codes, so you can group places into metros yourself.

# Actor input Schema

## `geoLevel` (type: `string`):

State totals, counties, or individual permit-issuing places (cities, towns, townships).

## `periodType` (type: `string`):

Monthly = permits issued in that month. Year-to-date = cumulative Jan..month. Annual = full calendar year (final revised figures).

## `startPeriod` (type: `string`):

Default: 12 months before the end period (monthly), the end month (YTD), or 3 years (annual).

## `endPeriod` (type: `string`):

Default: latest month the Census Bureau has published.

## `states` (type: `array`):

Two-letter codes, e.g. WA, TX. Empty = all states.

## `nameContains` (type: `array`):

Keep only counties/places whose name contains one of these (case-insensitive), e.g. 'King County', 'Seattle'.

## `minTotalUnits` (type: `integer`):

Drop rows with fewer permitted housing units (use 1 to skip zero rows).

## `includeReportedOnly` (type: `boolean`):

State and county files also carry figures from reporting jurisdictions only (no imputation). Adds reported\_\* columns.

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

0 = no limit.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "geoLevel": "county",
  "periodType": "monthly",
  "startPeriod": "2026-01",
  "states": [
    "WA"
  ],
  "minTotalUnits": 1,
  "includeReportedOnly": false,
  "maxItems": 0
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `overview` (type: `string`):

No description

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

No description

# 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 = {
    "startPeriod": "2026-01",
    "states": [
        "WA"
    ],
    "minTotalUnits": 1
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("wishbone_data/census-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 = {
    "startPeriod": "2026-01",
    "states": ["WA"],
    "minTotalUnits": 1,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("wishbone_data/census-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 '{
  "startPeriod": "2026-01",
  "states": [
    "WA"
  ],
  "minTotalUnits": 1
}' |
apify call wishbone_data/census-building-permits --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,wishbone_data/census-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/08m2fN6EpKXIU8i9W/builds/IhBWOhdAI6JuBwjRR/openapi.json