Commercial building permits by city: counts, value and issuance times in 8 large US cities, 2025 to 2026
- Primary data
- City open-data building permit files: LADBS, City of Miami, Austin, San Francisco DBI, Boston ISD, Philadelphia L&I, Denver CPD, Seattle SDCI
- Data period
- 2025 full year; January to September 2026
- Latest release used
- 2026-10-07
- Next release
- City files update daily; CB&C refresh planned after Q4 2026 data (January 2027)
- Geography
- Eight US cities (city limits)
- Sources
- 17 (17 Tier 1)
Commercial building permits by city, 2025: eight large US cities issued 28,364, with $11.7 billion in declared value across six. Miami issued 1,028.4 per 100,000 residents; Seattle 145.3. Median application-to-issue time ran from 6 days (San Francisco) to 93 (Los Angeles). January to September 2026 counts were 1.1% lower.
Commercial building permits by city: the 2025 side-by-side
Raw counts favour big cities; per-resident rates do not. Los Angeles issued the most commercial permits in 2025 (6,419), while Miami issued the most per resident (1,028.4 per 100,000).
This report counts commercial building permits issued in eight cities that publish permit-level open data with a commercial or occupancy field: Los Angeles, Miami, Austin, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Denver and Seattle. Across the eight, 28,364 commercial permits were issued in 2025. The plain-language explainer on what a commercial permit covers is on our commercial building permits guide.
| City | Permits issued 2025 | Population July 2025 | Permits per 100,000 residents | Declared value 2025 ($ millions) | Median declared value per permit ($) | Median days, application to issuance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miami | 5,037 | 489,812 | 1,028.4 | 3,920.3 | 27,400 | 72 |
| San Francisco | 4,044 | 826,079 | 489.5 | 1,055.9 | 19,443 | 6 |
| Boston | 2,844 | 672,973 | 422.6 | 1,902.7 | 70,000 | n/a |
| Austin | 4,012 | 1,002,632 | 400.1 | n/a | n/a | 56 |
| Denver | 2,497 | 740,613 | 337.2 | 2,148.9 | 95,000 | 34 |
| Los Angeles | 6,419 | 3,869,089 | 165.9 | 1,723.2 | 25,000 | 93 |
| Philadelphia | 2,371 | 1,574,281 | 150.6 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Seattle | 1,140 | 784,777 | 145.3 | 918.4 | 100,000 | 46 |
Sorted by permits per 100,000 residents. Declared value is applicant-declared. n/a: the dataset does not publish the field, or the field was unusable (Austin value). Each city's definition of commercial is in table t4.
Source: [3][6][2][4][7][8][5][1][9] City of Los Angeles, Department of Building and Safety (LADBS); City of Miami Building Department; City of Austin Development Services Department; San Francisco Department of Building Inspection (DBI); City of Boston Inspectional Services Department; City of Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections; City and County of Denver, Community Planning and Development; Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI); U.S. Census Bureau
Each city's own commercial definition
Source: city open-data permit files (LADBS, City of Miami, Austin DSD, SF DBI, Boston ISD, Philadelphia L&I, Denver CPD, Seattle SDCI), pulled 2026-10-07; U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 population estimates
Miami's rate of 1,028.4 permits per 100,000 residents in 2025 is 7.1 times Seattle's 145.3. Part of that gap is definitional: Miami's file treats every discipline as a separate sub-permit (this count keeps only building sub-permits), and Seattle's Commercial class leaves out industrial and institutional work.
Philadelphia, the second-largest city in this set (1,574,281 residents in July 2025), issued 2,371 commercial building permits in 2025, or 150.6 per 100,000. Philadelphia's file has no valuation or application date, so it appears in the counts only.
How long commercial permits take to issue in each city
Median issuance time is short for small jobs and long for large ones. In 2025 the median ran from 6 days in San Francisco to 93 days in Los Angeles, and large permits took 2.6 to 30.0 times longer than small ones within the same city.
Calendar days; Boston and Philadelphia publish no application date
Source: city open-data permit files (LADBS, City of Miami, Austin DSD, SF DBI, Boston ISD, Philadelphia L&I, Denver CPD, Seattle SDCI), pulled 2026-10-07
| City | Date fields used | 2025 permits with both dates | 25th percentile days | Median days 2025 | 75th percentile days | Median days, under $100,000 | Median days, $1 million or more | Issued same day (%) | Median days Jan to Sep 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | filed_date to issued_date | 4,011 | 0 | 6 | 31 | 2 | 60 | 33.1 | 12 |
| Denver | DATE_RECEIVED to DATE_ISSUED | 2,497 | 8 | 34 | 98 | 19 | 132.5 | 5.6 | 39 |
| Seattle | applieddate to issueddate | 1,095 | 17 | 46 | 98 | 34 | 96 | 3.5 | 40 |
| Austin | applieddate to issue_date | 4,012 | 18 | 56 | 148 | n/a | n/a | 3.9 | 59 |
| Miami | PlanCreatedDate to IssuedDate | 5,037 | 37 | 72 | 146 | 63 | 196 | 0.0 | 71 |
| Los Angeles | submitted_date to issue_date | 5,470 | 35 | 93 | 217 | 78 | 206.5 | 5.9 | 98 |
Calendar days. Boston and Philadelphia publish no application date. Austin size bands are n/a because its valuation field was excluded.
Source: [3][6][2][4][5][1] City of Los Angeles, Department of Building and Safety (LADBS); City of Miami Building Department; City of Austin Development Services Department; San Francisco Department of Building Inspection (DBI); City and County of Denver, Community Planning and Development; Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI)
Each city publishes different date fields, so the clock starts at slightly different points: application accepted as complete in Seattle, plan application in Austin, submission in Los Angeles, filing in San Francisco, receipt in Denver and plan creation in Miami. In San Francisco and Denver the issue date is the day fees were paid, which can trail plan approval.
San Francisco's median of 6 days reflects over-the-counter permits: 33.1% of 2025 commercial permits were issued on the filing date. San Francisco permits declared at $1 million or more took a median 60 days.
Permits declared under $100,000 vs $1 million or more
Source: city open-data permit files (LADBS, City of Miami, Austin DSD, SF DBI, Boston ISD, Philadelphia L&I, Denver CPD, Seattle SDCI), pulled 2026-10-07
Project size is the strongest pattern in the data. In Los Angeles, 2025 commercial permits declared at $1 million or more took a median 206.5 days, against 78 days for permits under $100,000. In Miami the figures were 196 and 63 days.
Some cities publish live timeline estimates instead: San Diego's Development Services Department posts weekly estimates for intake, review and issuance. Those dashboards report current queues; the figures here are realized medians for permits actually issued.
Declared construction value per permit and per resident
Most commercial permits are small alterations; most of the value sits in a few large permits. The 2025 median declared value per permit ranged from $19,443 to $100,000, while permits of $1 million or more carried 69.2% to 89.8% of value.
Declared value: The construction cost the applicant enters on the permit application. Cities use it to set value-based fees and may adjust it, but it is not an audited cost. Seattle describes its field as fair market value of parts plus labor, subject to change if the project is modified.
Applicant-declared; permits with a value above zero
Source: city open-data permit files (LADBS, City of Miami, Austin DSD, SF DBI, Boston ISD, Philadelphia L&I, Denver CPD, Seattle SDCI), pulled 2026-10-07
Declared commercial value per resident in 2025 was $8,004 in Miami, $2,901 in Denver, $2,827 in Boston, $1,278 in San Francisco, $1,170 in Seattle and $445 in Los Angeles. For regional context on Miami, see our South Florida commercial construction report.
- Seattle: 10.5% of 2025 commercial permits were declared at $1 million or more; they carried 82.2% of declared value.
- Denver: 10.9% of permits, 88.3% of value.
- Boston: 10.3% of permits, 80.6% of value.
- Miami: 4.9% of permits, 89.8% of value.
- Los Angeles: 3.8% of permits, 71.9% of value.
Austin is left out of all value figures. Its file repeats one project's valuation on each building permit in the project (77 permits issued on 2026-06-08 each carry $830 million) and most Austin commercial permits have no valuation at all.
Are commercial building permits up or down in 2026?
Counts are flat to slightly down. Across the eight cities, January to September 2026 commercial permits were 1.1% below the same months of 2025, with four cities up and four down.
Permits issued in the first nine months of each year
Source: city open-data permit files (LADBS, City of Miami, Austin DSD, SF DBI, Boston ISD, Philadelphia L&I, Denver CPD, Seattle SDCI), pulled 2026-10-07
| City | Permits Jan to Sep 2025 | Permits Jan to Sep 2026 | Change (%) | Value Jan to Sep 2025 ($ millions) | Value Jan to Sep 2026 ($ millions) | Value change (%) | Value change excluding largest permit (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austin | 2,968 | 3,133 | 5.6 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Miami | 3,867 | 4,042 | 4.5 | 3,181.4 | 3,554.7 | 11.7 | 11.5 |
| Philadelphia | 1,825 | 1,908 | 4.5 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Los Angeles | 4,861 | 4,961 | 2.1 | 1,315.4 | 4,636.6 | 252.5 | 126.9 |
| Boston | 2,182 | 2,002 | -8.2 | 1,603.4 | 1,357.9 | -15.3 | 4.3 |
| Seattle | 868 | 794 | -8.5 | 807.2 | 548.4 | -32.1 | -26.3 |
| San Francisco | 2,964 | 2,700 | -8.9 | 791.7 | 1,321.4 | 66.9 | 68.2 |
| Denver | 1,906 | 1,655 | -13.2 | 1,670.5 | 1,574.9 | -5.7 | -0.3 |
| Eight cities, total | 21,441 | 21,195 | -1.1 | 9,369.6 | 12,993.9 | 38.7 | n/a |
All eight datasets contain permits issued through 2026-09-30. Value totals cover six cities (Austin and Philadelphia excluded).
Source: [3][6][2][4][7][8][5][1] City of Los Angeles, Department of Building and Safety (LADBS); City of Miami Building Department; City of Austin Development Services Department; San Francisco Department of Building Inspection (DBI); City of Boston Inspectional Services Department; City of Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections; City and County of Denver, Community Planning and Development; Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI)
2025 vs January to September 2026
Source: city open-data permit files (LADBS, City of Miami, Austin DSD, SF DBI, Boston ISD, Philadelphia L&I, Denver CPD, Seattle SDCI), pulled 2026-10-07
Declared value tells a different story only because of one permit. Six-city declared value rose 38.7% to $12,993.9 million in January to September 2026. Los Angeles accounts for most of that: its LAX Terminal 5 permit (declared at $1,966.9 million) and a Los Angeles Convention Center addition (declared at $375.0 million) were both issued in 2026. Excluding Los Angeles, declared value in the other five cities rose 3.8%.
National spending data point the same way. The Census Bureau estimated private nonresidential construction spending at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $773.0 billion in August 2026, and total construction spending for January to August 2026 was 3.1% below the same period of 2025. Our commercial construction spending tracker follows that series monthly.
New-construction permits are a small slice of commercial permitting
Most commercial permits authorize alterations, tenant improvements and repairs. New-construction permits were 0.1% of San Francisco's 2025 commercial permits and 3.3% of Los Angeles's.
| City | New-construction flag | 2025 | Share of 2025 commercial permits (%) | Jan to Sep 2025 | Jan to Sep 2026 | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miami | ScopeofWork = 'NEW CONSTRUCTION' (process-level scope) | 1,076 | 21.4 | 805 | 972 | 20.7 |
| Austin | work_class = 'New' or 'Shell' | 821 | 20.5 | 530 | 698 | 31.7 |
| Philadelphia | typeofwork begins 'New Construction' | 266 | 11.2 | 186 | 231 | 24.2 |
| Los Angeles | permit_type = 'Bldg-New' | 213 | 3.3 | 148 | 193 | 30.4 |
| Denver | CLASS = 'New Building' | 142 | 5.7 | 114 | 89 | -21.9 |
| Seattle | permittypedesc = 'New' | 20 | 1.8 | 18 | 10 | -44.4 |
| Boston | permittypedescr = 'Erect/New Construction' | 14 | 0.5 | 12 | 8 | -33.3 |
| San Francisco | permit_type_definition begins 'new construction' | 4 | 0.1 | 4 | 13 | 225.0 |
Flags are city-defined and not comparable in level: Miami flags every building sub-permit under a new-construction process; Austin counts each building in a multi-building project.
Source: [3][6][2][4][7][8][5][1] City of Los Angeles, Department of Building and Safety (LADBS); City of Miami Building Department; City of Austin Development Services Department; San Francisco Department of Building Inspection (DBI); City of Boston Inspectional Services Department; City of Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections; City and County of Denver, Community Planning and Development; Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI)
New-construction flags are not comparable between cities. Austin's 821 new and shell permits in 2025 count each building of a multi-building project separately, and Miami's 1,076 are building sub-permits filed under processes whose scope is new construction. Within a city, the trend is more useful: Los Angeles new-building permits rose from 148 to 193 in January to September, while Seattle's fell from 18 to 10.
What a commercial building permit costs: official fee schedules
Most large cities set building permit fees on a sliding scale by declared value, and add a plan review fee. Two official schedules and two cities' recorded fees show the range.
| City | Measure | Declared value ($) | Fee ($) | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seattle | Permit fee plus plan review fee (building) | 100,000 | 3,643.00 | 2026 Fee Subtitle, Table D-1 and D-2 |
| Seattle | Permit fee plus plan review fee (building) | 1,000,000 | 16,718.00 | 2026 Fee Subtitle, Table D-1 and D-2 |
| Denver | Building permit fee plus 50% plan review fee | 100,000 | 1,155.00 | ADMIN 138, Table 1 |
| Denver | Building permit fee plus 50% plan review fee | 1,000,000 | 8,077.50 | ADMIN 138, Table 1 |
| Denver | Median PERMIT_FEE recorded, 2025 commercial permits | all values | 724 | COMMCON open data |
| Boston | Median total_fees recorded, 2025 commercial building permits | all values | 750 | Approved Building Permits open data |
Base value-based fees only; other agency, technology, utility or impact fees are not included. Not a quote.
Source: [11][12][5][7] Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections; City and County of Denver, Community Planning and Development; City and County of Denver, Community Planning and Development; City of Boston Inspectional Services Department
Seattle's 2026 Fee Subtitle sets a Development Fee Index of $1,821.50 for the first $100,000 of value and $8,359 for the first $1,000,000; for a building permit, both the permit fee and the plan review fee equal 100% of that index. On that basis the two base fees total $3,643.00 for a $100,000 project and $16,718 for a $1,000,000 project.
Denver's fee policy (ADMIN 125 and 138, revised May 21, 2024) charges $770.00 for the first $100,000 of valuation and $5,385.00 for the first $1,000,000, plus a plan review fee of 50% of the permit fee, giving $1,155.00 and $8,077.50. The median PERMIT_FEE recorded on Denver's 2025 commercial permits was $724.
How each city's open data defines a commercial permit
There is no common definition. Each count in this report uses the field and values the city publishes, listed below, and excludes cities whose files cannot separate commercial from residential work.
| City | Dataset | Publisher | Commercial definition used (field and values) | Value field | Dates for issuance time | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | Building and Safety: Building Permits Issued from 2020 to Present (N) | City of Los Angeles, Department of Building and Safety (LADBS) | permit_sub_type = 'Commercial' (all building permit types; electrical and mechanical permits are not in this dataset) | valuation (estimated value of work) | submitted_date to issue_date | Commercial sub-type covers all non-residential buildings; submitted_date missing on some records. |
| Miami | Building Permits Since 2014 | City of Miami Building Department | PropertyType = 'Commercial' and building-discipline sub-permits only (letter B after the process number in PermitNumber) | TotalCost | PlanCreatedDate to IssuedDate | City of Miami only, not Miami-Dade County; each discipline is a separate sub-permit, so trade sub-permits were excluded. |
| Austin | Issued Construction Permits | City of Austin Development Services Department | permit_class_mapped = 'Commercial', permittype = 'BP' (building permits), jurisdiction = 'AUSTIN FULL PURPOSE' | total_job_valuation (not used: see limits) | applieddate to issue_date | Commercial class includes buildings of 5+ dwelling units; project valuation is repeated on each permit and missing on most, so value was excluded. |
| San Francisco | Building Permits | San Francisco Department of Building Inspection (DBI) | proposed_occupancy lists only non-residential building code occupancy groups (no R group); mixed residential and commercial excluded | estimated_cost | filed_date to issued_date | Over-the-counter permits are filed and issued the same day, which pulls the median down; issued_date is the date fees were paid. |
| Boston | Approved Building Permits | City of Boston Inspectional Services Department | occupancytype = 'Comm' and permittypedescr in Short Form Bldg Permit, Long Form/Alteration Permit, Erect/New Construction, Foundation Permit | declared_valuation | no application date published | No application date, so issuance time cannot be measured; Mixed and Multi occupancies are excluded. |
| Philadelphia | Licenses and Inspections Building and Zoning Permits | City of Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections | commercialorresidential = 'Commercial' and permittype = 'Building' | none published | no application date published | Counts only: no valuation or application date; the commercial label includes R-2 buildings with more than two dwellings. |
| Denver | Commercial Construction Permits (Accela permit type COMMCON) | City and County of Denver, Community Planning and Development | all COMMCON permits except CLASS = 'Change of Contractor' (administrative) | VALUATION | DATE_RECEIVED to DATE_ISSUED | COMMCON also covers multi-unit residential buildings; DATE_ISSUED is the date the permit was paid. |
| Seattle | Building Permits | Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) | permitclass = 'Commercial' (Industrial, Institutional and Vacant Land classes excluded) | estprojectcost | applieddate to issueddate | Narrowest definition of the eight: industrial and institutional work sits in separate classes. |
All datasets pulled 2026-10-07 through each portal's public API with permits issued 2025-01-01 to 2026-09-30.
Source: [3][6][2][4][7][8][5][1] City of Los Angeles, Department of Building and Safety (LADBS); City of Miami Building Department; City of Austin Development Services Department; San Francisco Department of Building Inspection (DBI); City of Boston Inspectional Services Department; City of Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections; City and County of Denver, Community Planning and Development; Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI)
- Chicago was excluded: its Building Permits dataset has permit type, review type and work type fields but no occupancy or commercial and residential field.
- New York City was excluded: DOB NOW job filings classify building_type only as 1, 2 or 3 Family vs Other, so apartment buildings and commercial buildings cannot be separated.
- Austin's commercial class includes apartment buildings: 136 of its 2025 commercial building permits were in the Five or More Family Buildings class.
- Philadelphia's commercial label includes R-2 residential buildings with more than two dwellings, and Denver's COMMCON permit type covers multi-unit buildings.
Ratios behind the comparison
Commercial permits per 100,000 residents, 2025
Formulapermits_2025 / population_2025 * 100,000
Inputs: fact sheet rows 2 and 1, 26 and 25, 50 and 49, 63 and 62, 87 and 86, 105 and 104, 112 and 111, 138 and 137; derived d1, d12, d23, d27, d38, d48, d52, d63 (fact sheet rows)
Result: Miami 1,028.4; San Francisco 489.5; Boston 422.6; Austin 400.1; Denver 337.2; Los Angeles 165.9; Philadelphia 150.6; Seattle 145.3
Miami's rate is 7.1 times Seattle's. Rates partly reflect how finely each city splits a project into permits.
Limitations: City definitions of commercial differ; Census Vintage 2025 populations are model-based estimates.
Median declared value per commercial permit, 2025
Formulamedian of value field, permits with value above zero
Inputs: fact sheet rows 12, 36, 73, 97, 122, 148 (fact sheet rows)
Result: Seattle $100,000; Denver $95,000; Boston $70,000; Miami $27,400; Los Angeles $25,000; San Francisco $19,443
Seattle and Denver medians near $100,000 may reflect fewer small over-the-counter jobs in their commercial files than in San Francisco or Los Angeles.
Limitations: Applicant-declared values; Austin and Philadelphia excluded.
Median issuance time and the size gap
Formulamedian days for $1M+ permits / median days for permits under $100,000
Inputs: fact sheet rows 23 and 24, 47 and 48, 84 and 85, 133 and 134, 159 and 160; derived d11, d22, d37, d62, d73 (fact sheet rows)
Result: Los Angeles 2.6x; Miami 3.1x; San Francisco 30.0x; Denver 7.0x; Seattle 2.8x
Large permits took 2.6 to 30.0 times longer than small ones in the same city; city medians largely reflect permit mix.
Limitations: Start dates differ by city; issue dates in some cities are fee payment dates.
2026 to date vs 2025 same period
Formula(permits Jan to Sep 2026 / permits Jan to Sep 2025 - 1) * 100
Inputs: fact sheet rows 3 and 4, 27 and 28, 51 and 52, 64 and 65, 88 and 89, 106 and 107, 113 and 114, 139 and 140; derived d77 (fact sheet rows)
Result: Eight cities -1.1%; Los Angeles 2.1%; Miami 4.5%; Austin 5.6%; San Francisco -8.9%; Boston -8.2%; Philadelphia 4.5%; Denver -13.2%; Seattle -8.5%
Counts are flat; 4 cities up, 4 down. Value is up only because of one Los Angeles permit.
Limitations: Nine months; recent months may still receive late records.
Concentration of value in $1M+ permits
Formulavalue of permits declared at $1M or more / total declared value
Inputs: fact sheet rows 15 and 8, 39 and 32, 76 and 69, 100 and 93, 125 and 118, 151 and 144 (fact sheet rows)
Result: Los Angeles 71.9%; Miami 89.8%; San Francisco 69.2%; Boston 80.6%; Denver 88.3%; Seattle 82.2%
Permit counts track small jobs; value tracks a handful of large projects.
Limitations: Declared values.
Illustrative base fee for a $1,000,000 commercial building project
FormulaSeattle: DFI * 2; Denver: permit fee * 1.5
Inputs: fact sheet rows 166, 167, 169, 170; derived d86, d88 (fact sheet rows)
Result: Seattle $16,718; Denver $8,077.50
Base value-based fees differ about twofold between the two schedules for the same project value.
Limitations: Excludes other fees; not a quote.
Where the numbers diverge
- Eight large US cities issued 28,364 commercial building permits in 2025 (city open data, permits issued January 1 to December 31, 2025).[3][6][2][4][7][8][5][1]
- Miami issued 5,037 commercial building-discipline permits in 2025, or 1,028.4 per 100,000 residents, the highest rate of the eight cities.[6][9]
- Seattle issued 1,140 permits in its Commercial class in 2025, or 145.3 per 100,000 residents, the lowest rate; Seattle files industrial and institutional work in separate classes.[1][9]
- Los Angeles issued 6,419 commercial building permits in 2025, the largest count, equal to 165.9 per 100,000 residents.[3][9]
- San Francisco had the shortest median time from filing to issuance for commercial permits in 2025, 6 days, and 33.1% were issued on the filing date.[4]
- Los Angeles had the longest median time from submission to issuance in 2025, 93 days, with a 75th percentile of 217 days.[3]
- In Denver, 2025 commercial permits declared at $1 million or more took a median 132.5 days from receipt to issuance, 7.0 times the 19 days for permits under $100,000.[5]
- The median declared value per commercial permit in 2025 ranged from $19,443 in San Francisco to $100,000 in Seattle.[4][1]
- Six cities with usable value data declared $918.4 million (Seattle) to $3,920.3 million (Miami) of commercial work in 2025, $11,669.4 million in total.[3][6][4][7][5][1]
- January to September 2026 commercial permits were 1.1% below the same months of 2025 across the eight cities (21,195 vs 21,441).[3][6][2][4][7][8][5][1]
- Denver showed the largest nine-month decline, 13.2% (1,906 to 1,655 permits); Austin showed the largest rise, 5.6% (2,968 to 3,133).[5][2]
- Los Angeles commercial permit value rose 252.5% in January to September 2026, driven by one LAX Terminal 5 permit declared at $1,966.9 million; excluding the largest permit in each period the rise is 126.9%.[3]
- Seattle's declared commercial value fell 32.1% in January to September 2026 vs 2025, and Boston's fell 15.3%.[1][7]
- The median recorded fee per commercial permit in 2025 was $724 in Denver and $750 in Boston.[5][7]
Summary
- Eight large US cities issued 28,364 commercial building permits in 2025, counted from each city's open-data permit file using the city's own commercial label.
- Per resident, Miami issued the most: 1,028.4 commercial permits per 100,000 residents in 2025, 7.1 times Seattle's 145.3.
- Los Angeles issued the most in absolute terms, 6,419 commercial permits in 2025, but only 165.9 per 100,000 residents.
- Median time from application to issuance in 2025 ranged from 6 days in San Francisco to 93 days in Los Angeles; permits declared at $1 million or more took 206.5 days at the median in Los Angeles.
- Through September 2026, commercial permits across the eight cities were 1.1% below the same months of 2025 (21,195 vs 21,441); 4 cities rose and 4 fell.
- Declared value in the six cities with usable value data rose 38.7% in January to September 2026, but a single Los Angeles airport terminal permit declared at $1,966.9 million drives most of that; without Los Angeles the change is 3.8%.
- Permits of $1 million or more are a small share of the count (3.8% in Los Angeles, 10.9% in Denver) but carry most of the declared value (71.9% and 88.3%).
- The Census Bureau's Building Permits Survey covers new privately-owned residential construction only, so city permit files are the practical public source for commercial permit counts by city.
Questions people ask
How long does it take to get a commercial building permit?
In 2025 the median time from application to issuance for commercial permits was 6 days in San Francisco, 34 in Denver, 46 in Seattle, 56 in Austin, 72 in Miami and 93 in Los Angeles. Permits declared at $1 million or more took much longer, for example 206.5 days in Los Angeles and 196 in Miami.
Which city issues the most building permits?
Among the eight cities compared, Los Angeles issued the most commercial building permits in 2025 (6,419). Per resident, Miami issued the most: 1,028.4 per 100,000 residents. Counts depend on how each city splits a project into permits.
How much is a commercial building permit?
Most cities charge by declared project value. Under Seattle's 2026 Fee Subtitle, the base permit and plan review fees for a $1,000,000 building project total $16,718; under Denver's fee policy, they total $8,077.50. The median fee recorded on 2025 commercial permits was $724 in Denver and $750 in Boston, because most permits are small alterations.
Are building permits up or down in 2026?
Commercial permits are roughly flat. Across eight large cities, January to September 2026 commercial permits were 1.1% below the same months of 2025 (21,195 vs 21,441). Austin, Los Angeles, Miami and Philadelphia were up; Denver, San Francisco, Seattle and Boston were down.
How do I look up building permits in my city?
Most large cities publish permit records on an open-data portal (Socrata or ArcGIS) where each permit can be searched by address or permit number, and building departments also run permit search pages. The datasets used here are listed in the references with direct links; search your city name plus 'building permits open data' to find the equivalent.
For journalists and researchers
If you cite only a few, cite these
- Eight large US cities issued 28,364 commercial building permits in 2025, according to a CB&C count of city open-data permit files.[3][6][2][4][7][8][5][1]
- The median commercial permit in Los Angeles took 93 days from submission to issuance in 2025; in San Francisco it took 6.[3][4]
- Commercial permits in eight large cities were 1.1% lower in January to September 2026 than in the same months of 2025.[3][6][2][4][7][8][5][1]
Most quotable statistics
- Eight large US cities issued 28,364 commercial building permits in 2025, according to a CB&C count of city open-data permit files.[3][6][2][4][7][8][5][1]
- Miami issued 1,028.4 commercial permits per 100,000 residents in 2025, 7.1 times Seattle's rate.[6][1][9]
- The median commercial permit in Los Angeles took 93 days from submission to issuance in 2025; in San Francisco it took 6.[3][4]
- Commercial permits in eight large cities were 1.1% lower in January to September 2026 than in the same months of 2025.[3][6][2][4][7][8][5][1]
- A single LAX Terminal 5 permit declared at $1,966.9 million accounts for 42.4% of Los Angeles commercial permit value in January to September 2026.[3]
- In Denver, commercial permits of $1 million or more took a median 132.5 days to issue in 2025, against 19 days for jobs under $100,000.[5]
Press summary
Commercial Builders & Contractors counted commercial building permits in the open-data permit files of eight large US cities. Los Angeles, Miami, Austin, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Denver and Seattle issued 28,364 commercial permits in 2025. Miami issued the most per resident (1,028.4 per 100,000) and Seattle the fewest (145.3). Median time from application to issuance ran from 6 days in San Francisco to 93 days in Los Angeles, and permits declared at $1 million or more took far longer than small jobs in every city measured. Through September 2026, commercial permit counts were 1.1% below the same months of 2025, with four cities up and four down. Declared value rose 38.7% in six cities, driven by one $1,966.9 million LAX terminal permit. Each city defines commercial differently; definitions, fields and CSVs are published with the report.
Suggested headlines
- Miami issues 7.1 times as many commercial permits per resident as Seattle
- Commercial permit counts in eight big cities slip 1.1% through September 2026
- Los Angeles takes 93 days to issue the median commercial permit; San Francisco takes 6
- One LAX terminal permit drives Los Angeles commercial permit value in 2026
- Big commercial projects wait 7.0 times longer for permits than small jobs in Denver
How to cite this report
Commercial Builders & Contractors. (2026). Commercial building permits by city: counts, value and issuance times in 8 large US cities, 2025 to 2026. Retrieved from https://commercialbuildersandcontractors.com/commercial-building-permits-by-city/
Reuse license
Data and tables are licensed CC BY 4.0. Attribution: “Source: Commercial Builders & Contractors, Commercial building permits by city: counts, value and issuance times in 8 large US cities, 2025 to 2026” with a link to this page.
Download the data
Every table in this report is available as a CSV under CC BY 4.0. The fact sheet lists each value with its source URL and access date.
- derived_metrics.csv (CSV)
- fact_sheet.csv (CSV)
- Commercial building permits by city, 2025: count, rate, declared value and issuance time (CSV)
- Commercial permits and declared value, January to September 2026 vs January to September 2025 (CSV)
- Days from application to issuance for commercial permits, by city (CSV)
- How each city's open data defines a commercial building permit (CSV)
- What a commercial building permit costs: base fees from two official schedules, and median fees recorded in 2025 (CSV)
- New-construction commercial permits by city (CSV)
Frequently asked questions
How many commercial building permits do large US cities issue?
Eight large cities issued 28,364 commercial building permits in 2025, from 1,140 in Seattle to 6,419 in Los Angeles, using each city's own commercial definition.
Which city issues the most commercial permits per resident?
Miami, with 1,028.4 commercial building-discipline permits per 100,000 residents in 2025, followed by San Francisco at 489.5.
Which city is fastest at issuing commercial permits?
San Francisco, with a median of 6 days from filing to issuance in 2025, because 33.1% of its commercial permits were issued over the counter on the filing date.
Which city is slowest?
Los Angeles, with a median of 93 days from submission to issuance for commercial permits issued in 2025.
What is the median value of a commercial building permit?
It ranged from $19,443 in San Francisco to $100,000 in Seattle in 2025. Values are declared by applicants.
How much commercial construction value did cities permit in 2025?
Six cities with usable value data declared $11,669.4 million, led by Miami at $3,920.3 million and Denver at $2,148.9 million.
Why did Los Angeles permit value jump in 2026?
One permit for the LAX Terminal 5 rebuild and addition, issued in August 2026, declared $1,966.9 million, or 42.4% of the city's January to September 2026 commercial value.
Does the Census Bureau publish commercial building permits by city?
No. The Building Permits Survey covers new privately-owned residential construction only. Commercial counts come from city permit records.
Why are Chicago and New York City not included?
Their open-data permit files do not separate commercial from residential work: Chicago has no occupancy field, and New York's DOB NOW filings only distinguish 1 to 3 family buildings from all others.
How often is this report updated?
The city files update daily. CB&C plans to refresh the comparison after each quarter; this version uses permits issued through 2026-09-30, pulled 2026-10-07.
Methodology
Source selection: cities with permit-level open data published by the city itself, a field that separates commercial from residential work, and records covering January 2025 through September 2026. Ten cities were screened; eight qualified. Chicago and New York City were excluded because their files cannot separate commercial work. The Census Building Permits Survey was not used because it covers residential construction only.
Inclusion rules: a permit is counted in the year its issue date falls in. Only building permits are counted; separate electrical, plumbing, mechanical, gas and fire permits are excluded where the file contains them (Austin, Boston, Miami, Philadelphia). Each city's commercial definition, using its own field names and values, is listed in table t4. Duplicate rows were removed by permit number (San Francisco).
Value: totals and medians use the city's declared value field for permits with a value above zero. Values are applicant-declared and unaudited. Austin's valuation was excluded because one project's value is repeated on each permit and most permits have none. Philadelphia publishes no valuation.
Issuance time: calendar days from the city's application, submission, filing, receipt or plan-creation date to the issue date, for permits with both dates and a non-negative gap. Medians and quartiles use Python's statistics module. Boston and Philadelphia publish no application date.
Derived metrics: rates per 100,000 residents use Census Vintage 2025 July 1, 2025 city population estimates (released May 2026). Year-to-date comparisons use January to September of each year. Every derived figure is listed with its formula and input rows in derived_metrics.csv, and permit-level normalised files are reproducible with scripts/pull_permits.py and scripts/compute_metrics.py.
Conflicts and limitations: definitions of commercial and of a single permit differ across cities, so levels are not strictly comparable; trends within a city are more reliable. Records for recent months can change as cities update files. Fee figures are base schedule fees, not quotes. Last updated 2026-10-07.
This report presents published data with its limitations. It is not legal, financial or investment advice.
Sources, ranked by quality
Tier 1: primary and official sources (17)
- [1] Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI). Building Permits. permits issued 2025-01-01 to 2026-09-30; file updated daily, pulled 2026-10-07. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- [2] City of Austin Development Services Department. Issued Construction Permits. permits issued 2025-01-01 to 2026-09-30; file updated daily, pulled 2026-10-07. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- [3] City of Los Angeles, Department of Building and Safety (LADBS). Building and Safety: Building Permits Issued from 2020 to Present (N). permits issued 2025-01-01 to 2026-09-30; file updated daily, pulled 2026-10-07. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- [4] San Francisco Department of Building Inspection (DBI). Building Permits. permits issued 2025-01-01 to 2026-09-30; file updated daily, pulled 2026-10-07. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- [5] City and County of Denver, Community Planning and Development. Commercial Construction Permits (Accela permit type COMMCON). permits issued 2025-01-01 to 2026-09-30; file updated daily, pulled 2026-10-07. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- [6] City of Miami Building Department. Building Permits Since 2014. permits issued 2025-01-01 to 2026-09-30; file updated daily, pulled 2026-10-07. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- [7] City of Boston Inspectional Services Department. Approved Building Permits. permits issued 2025-01-01 to 2026-09-30; file updated daily, pulled 2026-10-07. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- [8] City of Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections. Licenses and Inspections Building and Zoning Permits. permits issued 2025-01-01 to 2026-09-30; file updated daily, pulled 2026-10-07. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- [9] U.S. Census Bureau. City and Town Population Totals: 2020 to 2025 (Vintage 2025, SUB-EST2025). July 1, 2025 estimates; released May 2026. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- [10] U.S. Census Bureau. Building Permits Survey (BPS). Final 2025 annual estimates posted 2026-05-14. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- [11] Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections. 2026 Fee Subtitle (Seattle Municipal Code Chapter 22.900), Tables D-1 and D-2. Effective 2026-01-01. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- [12] City and County of Denver, Community Planning and Development. Building Permit Policy ADMIN 125 and 138: Building and Related Fees. Revision May 21, 2024. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- [13] U.S. Census Bureau. Monthly Construction Spending, August 2026 (CB26-158). August 2026; released 2026-10-01. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- [14] City of Chicago, Department of Buildings. Building Permits (Chicago), screened and excluded. Updated 2026-10-06. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- [15] New York City Department of Buildings. DOB NOW: Build, Job Application Filings, screened and excluded. Updated 2026-10-06. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- [16] New York City Department of Buildings. DOB NOW: Build, Approved Permits, screened and excluded. Updated 2026-10-06. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- [17] City of San Diego Development Services Department. Permit Processing Timeline. Weekly estimates, viewed 2026-10-07. Accessed 2026-10-07.