A building permit for a new single-family house in New Jersey cost a median of $3,626 in 2024, based on 7,188 permits that towns reported to the state. Each town sets its own fees by ordinance, so the same house can cost under $2,000 to permit in one town and over $6,000 in another. Home alterations cost far less: a job reported at $10,000 to $25,000 had a median permit fee of $304.
We calculated these figures from the NJ Construction Permit Data file that the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) publishes on data.nj.gov. It holds the monthly permit reports municipalities file with DCA, with each fee split by subcode. The file we used covers reports received through August 7, 2026, and we downloaded it on October 25, 2026.
| Item | What we found |
|---|---|
| Who sets the fee | Your town, by ordinance (N.J.A.C. 5:23-4.17); the state adds a training surcharge |
| New single-family house, 2024 | Median $3,626; middle half $2,602–$4,864 (7,188 permits with a reported cost of $100,000+) |
| Fee per $1,000 of reported cost | Median $13.80 for a new house; about 2.2%–2.4% of cost for home alterations over $10,000 |
| Largest piece of a new-house fee | Building subcode: 47.3% of fee dollars; plumbing 22.8%, electrical 14.7%, fire 7.9% |
| State DCA surcharge | $0.00371 per cubic foot for new buildings and additions; $1.90 per $1,000 for other work |
| Home alteration at $10,000–$25,000 | Median $304 (61,482 records in 2024) |
| Town-to-town spread | Middle 80% of town medians for a new house: $2,338–$6,336 |
How a New Jersey building permit fee is calculated
New Jersey enforces one statewide Uniform Construction Code, but the fees are local. N.J.A.C. 5:23-4.17 tells each municipality to set its enforcing agency fees by ordinance for plan review, construction permits, certificates of occupancy, demolition and other permits, and to calculate the schedule to reasonably cover the town’s cost of enforcing the code. The Division of Local Government Services repeats that limit in Local Finance Notice 2020-27 and says construction fee spending is tested in each town’s annual audit.
A construction permit is the sum of its subcode fees. A new house usually carries four: building, plumbing, electrical and fire protection. The town then adds the state training surcharge under N.J.A.C. 5:23-4.19: $0.00371 per cubic foot of new buildings and additions. Alterations and repairs carry $1.90 per $1,000 of construction cost, as Cranford’s construction office lists alongside the cubic-foot rate. The reported fees match those rates: the surcharge on 2024 new houses worked out to $0.00371 per cubic foot, and on home alterations to a median $1.92 per $1,000.
Where DCA or a private on-site inspection agency acts as the subcode official, DCA Bulletin 94-10 limits the charges to the items in the state fee schedule at N.J.A.C. 5:23-4.20. Many town ordinances price new buildings per cubic foot of volume, as Mendham Borough’s fee schedule does, and alterations per $1,000 of estimated cost.
What a new-house permit cost in 2024, fee by fee
For new single-family detached houses permitted in 2024 with a reported construction cost of $100,000 or more, the median total fee was $3,626. A quarter paid less than $2,602, a quarter paid more than $4,864, and one in ten paid more than $6,541. The median reported cost was $247,750, so the fee came to a median $13.80 per $1,000 of reported cost.
- Building subcode: median $1,611, and 47.3% of all new-house fee dollars.
- Plumbing subcode: median $862, 22.8% of fee dollars.
- Electrical subcode: median $480, 14.7%.
- Fire protection subcode: median $266, 7.9%, charged on 93.8% of the permits.
- State training surcharge: median $160, 4.4%.
- Certificate fee: listed separately on 41.9% of the records and 2.1% of fee dollars.
The median barely moved from year to year: $3,383 for 2022 permits, $3,356 for 2023, $3,634 for 2024 and $3,564 for 2025, using the same filters before duplicate rows were removed. Median reported construction cost rose from $231,900 to $258,900 over the same four years.
Which New Jersey counties and towns charged the most for a new house
County medians ran from $1,661 in Camden County to $6,308 in Bergen County. Part of that gap is house size: the median reported cost in Bergen was $452,000, against $114,000 in Camden. Measured per $1,000 of reported cost, Middlesex ($18.31), Burlington ($17.91) and Passaic ($17.45) were highest, and Atlantic ($8.35), Cape May ($8.86) and Mercer ($9.54) were lowest.
| County | 2024 permits | Median fee | Median reported cost | Fee per $1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bergen | 509 | $6,308 | $452,000 | $12.75 |
| Essex | 148 | $4,873 | $531,500 | $9.84 |
| Middlesex | 438 | $4,841 | $249,900 | $18.31 |
| Monmouth | 1,250 | $4,107 | $227,500 | $16.38 |
| Ocean | 1,240 | $3,282 | $270,600 | $11.65 |
| Atlantic | 208 | $3,148 | $330,175 | $8.35 |
| Gloucester | 454 | $2,776 | $177,330 | $14.68 |
| Warren | 174 | $2,525 | $168,600 | $11.16 |
| Camden | 134 | $1,661 | $114,000 | $14.29 |
Across the 138 towns with at least 10 new-house permits in 2024, the middle town charged a median $3,639. One town in ten had a median under $2,338, and one in ten was over $6,336. Among the 52 towns with at least 40 permits, the highest medians were Old Bridge Township ($6,669), River Vale ($6,285), Paramus ($6,018), Freehold Township ($5,913) and West Windsor ($5,875). The lowest were Teaneck ($1,535), Clementon ($1,661), Washington Township in Warren County ($1,662), Lacey ($1,884) and Edgewater Park ($2,042).
The applicant enters the construction cost, while many towns price a new house by volume, so fee-per-$1,000 figures swing with how costs are reported. West Windsor’s median reported cost of $138,250 puts its fee at $40.79 per $1,000; Paramus, at $530,250, works out to $10.67.
What home alteration, addition and demolition permits cost in New Jersey
For one- and two-family homes (use group R-5), towns reported 312,372 permit records in 2024. Among records with a fee above zero, the median was $157 for an alteration, $978 for an addition and $125 for a demolition. Alteration fees by the job cost the applicant reported:
| Reported job cost | Records | Median fee | Middle half | Fee as share of cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $2,500 | 102,551 | $83 | $72–$119 | 7.7% |
| $2,500–$9,999 | 92,605 | $163 | $101–$237 | 3.2% |
| $10,000–$24,999 | 61,482 | $304 | $209–$466 | 2.2% |
| $25,000–$49,999 | 15,148 | $719 | $489–$1,057 | 2.2% |
| $50,000–$99,999 | 5,610 | $1,461 | $779–$2,195 | 2.3% |
| $100,000 and up | 2,352 | $3,770 | $2,433–$5,383 | 2.4% |
Small jobs pay more per dollar because each subcode has a minimum fee; one township’s schedule on eCode360, for example, sets a $100 minimum for residential building work. The most common alteration record in 2024 carried only an electrical fee (101,597 records), with a median fee of $166 on a median reported cost of $4,950. Records with only a building fee had a median of $158.
How to find your New Jersey town’s permit fee before you apply
- Open your municipality’s construction office page and look for the fee ordinance or fee sheet. Many towns publish the ordinance on eCode360 under a chapter titled Uniform Construction Codes or Construction Codes.
- List the subcodes your job needs. A deck may need only a building fee; a kitchen remodel can add plumbing and electrical, each priced on its own line.
- Check how the town prices your work: per cubic foot for new space, per $1,000 of cost for alterations, or a flat fee per fixture or device for trade work.
- Add the state training surcharge of $0.00371 per cubic foot for new buildings and additions, or $1.90 per $1,000 of cost for alterations.
- Ask the office about the certificate fee and any plan review or update fees. For the fee on a past permit at a property, ask the town that issued it; DCA sends questions about individual permit records to the issuing office. Our guide to looking up permits by address covers the request.
Items to compare when budgeting New Jersey permit fees
- Which subcodes the contractor’s quote includes (building, plumbing, electrical, fire).
- Whether the quoted price includes the town’s fees and the DCA surcharge, or bills them later.
- The certificate of occupancy or approval fee, if the town charges it separately.
- Whether the town prices your job by volume, by cost or per fixture.
- Fees for plan changes after the permit is issued.
- The town’s median for similar work in the DCA data, as a check on the estimate.
How we worked with the DCA permit file
Each row in the DCA file is one permit record as a town reported it. For new houses we used the census category Single-Family Detached NEW, kept one row per permit number (the one with the highest fee), and set aside rows with a reported cost under $100,000, which were 6,376 of the 13,755 new-house rows in 2024. Alteration, addition and demolition figures use every R-5 record with a fee and cost above zero. In many towns trade work is filed as its own record, so one renovation can appear as two or three records.
DCA describes the file as raw, unaudited data from most but not all municipalities, with reports from the latest two months still unreviewed and rows purged after 60 months. Its official monthly Construction Reporter carries corrected figures. For other cities’ permit and violation figures, see our building permit data page, and for one New Jersey city’s own search tools, our Jersey City permit records guide. For how long the same new-house permits took to reach a certificate of occupancy, see our NJ certificate of occupancy timeline.
For a house that replaces a demolished one, see how long the sequence takes in our NJ demolition permit to new house timeline.
NJ DCA permit data and fee rules checked October 25, 2026.