Permit Pub (805) 995-9942
Start Free Week
PERMITPUB RESEARCH Commercial building permits

Commercial Permit Activity Across 48 U.S. Cities

A 21-day ranking of classified commercial building permits from eligible city-level public feeds

PermitPub counted 6,154 classified commercial permits dated from July 23 through August 12, 2026, across 48 city-level feeds that passed volume, date-completeness, and crawl-recency checks.

Published By PermitPub Research

At a glance

Key Findings

  • 48 city markets qualified, contributing 6,154 distinct commercial permit records across the same 21-day window.
  • Austin, TX ranked first with 618 permits, followed by Los Angeles, CA (506) and New York, NY (495).
  • The top three cities accounted for 1,619 permits, or 26.3% of the qualified cohort.
  • Commercial buildout was the largest classified project group, with 2,374 permits (38.6% of the cohort).
  • Every included source had at least 95% authoritative-date completion, at least five observed activity dates, and a successful crawl within two days of the audit.

Primary visualization

Top 12 cities by classified commercial permit count

Raw counts of distinct qualifying permit records. These values are not adjusted for population, construction spending, or differences in local filing practices.

Distinct commercial permits
  1. Austin, TX618
  2. Los Angeles, CA506
  3. New York, NY495
  4. Washington, DC352
  5. Miami, FL313
  6. Columbus, OH313
  7. Lubbock, TX265
  8. Jersey City, NJ252
  9. Fort Worth, TX211
  10. Denver, CO185
  11. San Jose, CA178
  12. Boston, MA144

Source: PermitPub production records dated 2026-07-23 through 2026-08-12; audit workflow run 31662149728.

Full data

All 48 qualifying city markets

Distinct classified commercial permits dated July 23 through August 12, 2026. Counts are not population-adjusted.
Rank City State Commercial permits Dates observed Source feeds
1 Austin TX 618 19 8
2 Los Angeles CA 506 16 6
3 New York NY 495 14 3
4 Washington DC 352 14 3
5 Miami FL 313 15 1
6 Columbus OH 313 14 2
7 Lubbock TX 265 15 1
8 Jersey City NJ 252 18 1
9 Fort Worth TX 211 14 1
10 Denver CO 185 18 2
11 San Jose CA 178 15 3
12 Boston MA 144 16 1
13 Orlando FL 143 14 2
14 Hartford CT 140 13 4
15 Chicago IL 127 15 1
16 Mesa AZ 115 14 4
17 San Francisco CA 115 14 1
18 Kansas City MO 110 12 1
19 Baltimore MD 102 15 1
20 Minneapolis MN 96 14 2
21 Phoenix AZ 95 15 1
22 Virginia Beach VA 90 12 2
23 Cape Coral FL 83 14 4
24 Buffalo NY 81 14 1
25 Portland ME 79 15 1
26 Pittsburgh PA 79 12 1
27 Seattle WA 67 13 3
28 Atlanta GA 61 7 1
29 Louisville KY 53 13 1
30 San Diego CA 49 10 2
31 Gaithersburg MD 48 13 3
32 Somerville MA 46 13 1
33 Arlington TX 45 14 1
34 Aurora CO 41 13 1
35 Baton Rouge LA 39 13 1
36 Gilbert AZ 38 10 1
37 Gilbert AZ 38 10 1
38 Nashua NH 37 12 1
39 Tempe AZ 35 12 3
40 Bend OR 35 9 4
41 Everett WA 35 12 1
42 Tacoma WA 35 11 1
43 West Sacramento CA 33 6 1
44 Greensboro NC 29 13 1
45 Jacksonville FL 27 14 1
46 Norfolk VA 26 13 3
47 Detroit MI 25 11 2
48 Sioux Falls SD 25 7 1

What this ranking measures

This report compares distinct permit records that PermitPub classified into eight commercial project groups. It measures activity visible in the participating city permit systems during one common 21-day window.

The ranking does not claim that the leading cities are growing fastest or building the most in total. A city can require more filings per project, publish a broader permit set, or expose records differently from another city. The table should be read as a transparent comparison of the qualifying records PermitPub observed.

The leading cities

Austin led the qualified cohort with 618 permits. Los Angeles recorded 506, and New York recorded 495.

Together, those three cities represented 26.3% of all qualifying permits. The full table is provided rather than a selective top-ten list so readers can see the distribution and the observed-date coverage for every included city.

What kinds of projects appeared

Commercial buildout was the largest category at 2,374 records. The classification groups are descriptive labels derived from permit type and work-description fields; they are not estimates of project value or economic impact.

The downloadable aggregate dataset includes the category count for every city, allowing readers to inspect the composition behind each total without exposing individual permit records or personal information.

  • Commercial buildout: 2,374 permits (38.6%)
  • Office buildout: 1,535 permits (24.9%)
  • Warehouse and industrial: 727 permits (11.8%)
  • Retail buildout: 625 permits (10.2%)
  • Restaurant buildout: 551 permits (9.0%)
  • Medical and dental: 262 permits (4.3%)
  • Mixed use: 41 permits (0.7%)
  • Hotel and hospitality: 39 permits (0.6%)

How this report is built

Methodology

The study was selected only after a read-only production feasibility audit tested history depth, geography, record family, authoritative dates, source recency, and cohort size.

Date range analyzed
July 23 through August 12, 2026, inclusive: 21 Pacific calendar dates.
Authoritative activity date
Issued date was used first, then applied date, then finaled date. Scrape, modified, first-seen, and last-seen timestamps were not used as permit dates.
Records included
Current records from active sources with record_family = permit and a commercial project category: commercial buildout, office, warehouse or industrial, retail, restaurant, medical or dental, mixed use, or hotel and hospitality.
Records excluded
Undated and future-dated records; cancelled, void, or withdrawn records; non-permit record families; and county, parish, borough, or statewide geographies.
Geographic eligibility
City, municipality, town, or village feeds needed at least 25 qualifying permits, five distinct activity dates, 95% source-level authoritative-date completion, and a successful crawl within two days of the audit.
Metric calculation
The metric is a count of distinct canonical PermitPub record IDs grouped by city. No records were weighted, projected, or extrapolated.
Duplicates and missing dates
Counts used distinct canonical record IDs. The production audit found zero current records without an authoritative date. Records outside the defined date window were excluded.
Normalization and weighting
None. Values are raw record counts and are not adjusted for population, permit value, project size, or filing rules.

Data scope

6,154 aggregate permit records across 48 qualifying city markets. The source audit ran on production at 2026-08-13T02:52:40.296415+00:00 from code d5c6c420d40b. The public CSV contains city-level aggregates only.

Download aggregate CSV City-level aggregates only; no personal information

Limitations

  • Local governments differ in which permit classes they publish and how many filings a single project generates.
  • Project categories are rule-based classifications of permit fields and may not match a jurisdiction's own terminology in every case.
  • The 21-day window is a current activity snapshot, not a seasonal or year-over-year trend analysis.
  • Raw counts favor larger jurisdictions and are not a per-capita comparison.
  • The study covers qualifying PermitPub city feeds, not every U.S. city or every commercial project.

PermitPub coverage

About the Data

PermitPub collects public-record business signals from local and state government sources. For this report, PermitPub used only current building-permit records with an authoritative issued, applied, or finaled date. Individual permit records and personal information are not included in the downloadable research dataset.

For journalists and researchers

Media & Citation

Aggregate findings and the downloadable CSV may be cited with attribution to PermitPub Research and a link to this report. Please preserve the 21-day date window and the qualifying-city description when referencing the ranking.

Media contact: leads@permitpub.com

Suggested citation

Source: PermitPub Research, "Commercial Permit Activity Across 48 U.S. Cities," August 2026. https://permitpub.com/resources/commercial-permit-activity-48-us-cities-august-2026/

Work the signals

Want the businesses behind the numbers?

PermitPub helps sales professionals find fresh public-record signals from businesses that are opening, building, remodeling, moving, or expanding.

Start Free Week