We downloaded public permit records from city and county open data portals and counted what they show: how long permits take, how often they end without a final inspection, and what that means for someone buying a house. Every figure below comes from one of our published analyses; follow the link for the full method, sources, and limits.
By city or county
- Seattle: Single-family remodel permits were typically issued in 10 days, but 16% of those issued later expired without a final.
- New York City: Of 2023 alteration jobs on one- and two-family buildings, 26% still have no sign-off, and 21% have work permits that have expired.
- Los Angeles: 79% of home alteration permits were Express Permits with no plan check; 20% of those issued in 2023 still read “Issued.”
- Austin: 21% of residential repair permits now show “Expired,” including 21% of foundation repairs.
- Chicago: 34% of renovation permits issued in 2023–24 show “Expired,” against 39% “Complete.”
- Montgomery County, MD: 16% of house alteration permits have no final date; for sheds it is 29%.
- Maricopa County, AZ: 20% of remodel permits applied for in July 2024–June 2025 already show “Expired.”
By topic
- How long a permit takes: A typical home remodel permit was issued in 10 to 75 days across six places; new homes took from about 45 days to nine months.
- Open permits: In Los Angeles, New York City, and Montgomery County, 14% to 20% of home permits issued in 2019–2022 still show no final inspection.
- Unpermitted work: At most 1 permit in 200 says it legalizes earlier work, and those took about twice as long to issue.
- Certificates of occupancy: New Miami-Dade homes typically got a CO 238 days after the permit; in New York City it was 483 days and in Los Angeles 462.
- Contractor licenses: 46% of Washington construction contractor registrations are active, and only 2.1% of recent Seattle building permits name a contractor company.
- Property liens: New York City’s 2025 lien sale list fell from 29,972 properties at the 90-day notice to 4,545 at the sale.
- Code violations: 64% of Chicago building violations cited in 2024 still read “OPEN,” while Austin closed 99% of its 2024 complaint cases, half within five days.
- NYC HPD violations: Class C violations from 2024 inspections took a median 92 days to close despite a 24-hour deadline; 23% are still open.
- Expired permits by project: 28% of Austin’s 2022 residential repair permits now read “Expired,” against 7% of new-home permits.
- Miami-Dade roof permits: Half of residential re-roof permits were issued within a day; tile roofs took a median 54 days to their last approved inspection.
- Work-without-permit complaints: 49% of Austin’s 2024 complaints found no violation; where owners came into compliance, 54% of addresses filed a permit within a year.
- Unfinished renovation permits: 61% of Chicago’s 2022 home renovation permits read “Expired”; in Los Angeles, 20% have no final.
- Seattle unpermitted-construction complaints: 38% of Seattle’s 2024 complaints led to a Notice of Violation at the address, and 29% of addresses applied for a building permit within a year.
- Roof permits with no final inspection: 11.5% of Los Angeles re-roof permits from 2022–24 have no approved inspection, against 2.7% in Miami-Dade County.
- Los Angeles unpermitted-construction complaints: LADBS opened a case on 31% of 7,187 complaints from 2022, and 23% of those cases are still open in 2026.
- NYC certificates of occupancy: 31% of jobs whose first DOB NOW certificate came in 2021–2023 still had no final CO in October 2026.
- Washington contractor registrations: Of 68,517 active contractors, 24% are single-trade specialty contractors and 10.6% had liability insurance ending within 60 days.
- Chicago building violations: Of 1,446 no-permit citations from 2024, 23% were marked Complied by October 2026 and 43% saw a permit at the address within a year.
- Oregon contractor licenses: Of 44,127 active construction licenses, 10.2% had liability insurance ending within 60 days, and two in three residential general contractors are registered with no employees.
- California contractor licenses (CSLB): Of 245,633 licenses, 4.8% were suspended, most often over the $25,000 bond, and 49.0% were exempt from workers’ comp.
- Virginia contractor licenses (DPOR): Of 54,029 current licenses, 20.9% are Class C, limited to jobs under $30,000, and 5.4% expire within 60 days.
- Connecticut home improvement contractors: Of 24,065 active registrations, 14.7% were first issued in the past year, and about 1 in 7 lapsed at the March 31, 2026 renewal.
- Texas A/C and electrical contractors: 11.3% of A/C contractor licenses expire within 60 days, and 47% of current A/C licenses are Class B.
- Colorado electrical and plumbing contractors: 332 electrical contractor registrations were listed as “Need Master Hire – Cannot Practice,” 6.5% of those active or in that status.
- Illinois roofing contractors: About 12.6% of roofing licenses up for renewal lapsed at the December 31, 2025 deadline, and 11.4% of 5,043 active licenses list an out-of-state address.
- Illinois home inspectors: 1,413 of 1,691 active licenses (83.6%) expire November 30, 2026, and about 1 in 4 lapsed at the 2024 renewal.
- NYC tax lien sale list: Of 29,972 properties on the 90-day notice list for the 2025 sale, 15.2% had liens sold; residential condo units 36.8%.
- NYC HPD emergency repair charges: Work orders created in 2024 billed $64.0 million; lots with $10,000 or more in 2022–23 charges were on the 2025 lien sale list 51.0% of the time.
- NYC AEP buildings: 862 buildings were active in HPD’s Alternative Enforcement Program in October 2026; about half of the 2017–2022 picks left within 150 days, against 25–36% of the 2024–2026 picks.
- Oregon electrical and plumbing contractors: 96–97% of BCD electrical and plumbing contractors match an active CCB license by name, and about 1 in 10 had CCB insurance ending within 60 days.
- Montgomery County, MD new home builders: 498 builder registrations were in force; 25% were first issued in the past 12 months and 115 others expired in the past year.
- New York mold contractors: 1,767 DOL mold contractor licenses were active in October 2026; about 212 businesses hold both an assessment and a remediation license, which state law bars from doing both jobs on the same property.
- New York elevator licenses: 213 elevator business licenses and 4,028 mechanic licenses were active; 69.5% of mechanic licenses expire in December 2027.
- New York asbestos certificates: 21,727 DOL asbestos endorsements were active for 16,733 people; of 5,632 that expired in the past year, only 72 matched a current one.
- Delaware electricians and plumbers: 63.4% of 1,680 active master electricians list an out-of-state address; a week before the October 31, 2026 deadline, a third of master plumber licenses still showed the 2026 date.
- Montgomery County, MD electrical permits: 78.9% of 28,173 home electrical permits from 2022–24 were finaled, at a median of 55 days; EV chargers took 15 days, low-voltage permits finaled 42.6% of the time.
- Los Angeles certificates of occupancy: 79.2% of 16,018 new-home and ADU permits from 2021–22 had a certificate by October 2026, a median of 439 days after issue.
- New Orleans code enforcement cases: of 2,244 blight cases from 2024 with a violation, 57.8% drew a guilty judgment and 39.9% had it recorded as a lien, a median of 41 days after the hearing.
- Philadelphia L&I violations: of 48,392 cases opened in 2024, 83.1% were closed by October 2026; building and construction cases took a median 146 days and 14.1% were in court.
- Cincinnati code enforcement cases: of 5,218 housing cases from 2024, 73.5% were closed, 4.6% reached a final notice and 3.5% a civil citation; 51.6% of barricading cases had costs assessed on the tax bill.
- New Jersey certificate of occupancy timeline: in 16 towns that report every CO, new houses permitted in 2021–23 got one a median 280 days after the permit; statewide, only 34.8% of those permits show a final CO in the state file.
- Norfolk, VA code violations: half of 14,859 violations written in 2024 were corrected within 15 days; property maintenance code violations took a median 174 days, and 41.0% of complaints were unfounded.
- Virginia Beach building permits: 46.6% of 2023–24 home addition and alteration permits were issued the same day; 22.1% were still Active in October 2026, led by pools and piers.
- New Jersey building permit fees: a new single-family house permit cost a median $3,626 in 2024 across 7,188 permits; a $10,000–$25,000 home alteration cost $304, and town medians for a new house ran from $2,338 to $6,336 for the middle 80%.
- New Jersey demolition to rebuild: 35.2% of 13,045 home demolition permits from 2021–23 were followed by a new house permit on the same lot, a median 51 days later; rebuild rates ran from 91% in Avalon to near zero in Paterson and Camden.
- Virginia Beach unpermitted construction complaints: 51.4% of building-work complaints from 2023–25 led to a permit application on the parcel within 12 months, a median 13 days later; fence and shed complaints did so a third of the time.
- Norfolk short-term rentals: 262 rentals were on the active list in October 2026; 28.6% of 469 STR complaints from 2024–25 led to a violation, and 78.1% of those violations were corrected, a median 28 days later.
- Philadelphia unsafe and imminently dangerous buildings: 124 open imminently dangerous and 3,045 open unsafe violations in October 2026; city demolitions in 2024 began a median 47 days after the first imminently dangerous violation.
- Norfolk, VA building permits: 2,602 home building permits from 2023–24 were issued a median 21 days after application; 86.4% were finaled and 54.5% had at least one failed inspection.
- Montgomery County, MD use and occupancy certificates: 70.0% of 5,340 U&O records filed from 1999 to 2008 still read Issued; since 2021, 99.2% are issued the same day as the final inspection.
- New York Contractor Registry: 15,022 public work registration certificates were active; 32.0% expire in December 2026 or January 2027, and 4.0% of registrants disclose a past violation or debarment.
- Seattle certificates of occupancy: Of 4,205 permits from 2021–2023 that added housing, 81% were completed by October 2026, with a median of 463 days from issue.
- NYC DOB (ECB) violations: 35.6% of 52,042 ECB violations from 2024 were still active in October 2026; defaults carried a median $6,250 penalty.
Tools built on the same data
- Permit status decoder: paste permit rows to see which statuses need a question, and copy them as a checklist.
- The outcome comparison tool on the same page: pick a city, a type of work, and a year to see typical time to issue and the share without a final.
How we work with the data
- Sources: the official open data portals of Seattle, New York City, Los Angeles, Austin, Chicago, Montgomery County (MD), Maricopa County (AZ), Miami-Dade County, and Washington State, Oregon’s Construction Contractors Board, plus New York City’s lien sale lists. Each analysis links the exact data set it used.
- Calculation: we download the records, count them ourselves, and recheck key counts with a separate query to the city’s server. These are our calculations, not figures published by the agencies.
- Dates: data was pulled October 23–24, 2026. Statuses change, so check any single permit in the official record.
- Limits: cities use different status names and measure time differently. We state each place’s definitions in its analysis and compare places only where the definitions line up.