# US Building-Permits Bulk Extractor (Socrata) (`xtracto/building-permits`) Actor

Extract millions of US building-permit records from city open-data portals (Socrata) — construction-activity intelligence. One permit per row. Public data, no login.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/xtracto/building-permits.md
- **Developed by:** [Farhan Febrian Nauval](https://apify.com/xtracto) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Real estate
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## US Building Permits Scraper

Extract **building-permit records** from US & Canadian city open-data portals — permit number, type, work description, status, issue date, address, reported cost, and coordinates. One **permit per row**, ready for a construction-activity model, spreadsheet, or database.

Built for real-estate funds and REITs, building-material suppliers, contractors, proptech, and analysts who treat permit volume as a leading construction-activity signal.

***

### Why use this actor

- **No account, no login, no API key required.**
- **Huge volume in one run** — pull a whole city, or a date slice across many cities (millions of permits available across the supported portals).
- **Filter before you pull** — restrict to a date range so you only get (and only pay for) what you need.
- **Rich, structured detail** per permit — type, work description, status, address, reported cost, and coordinates where available.
- **Stable JSON output** ready for pipelines, CRMs, spreadsheets, or databases (download as JSON, CSV, or Excel).

### How it works

1. You pick one or more **cities** from the list (or point the actor at any other city's open-data table you know).
2. *(Optional)* Add a **date filter** to narrow the pull.
3. The actor collects every matching permit — number, type, work description, status, issue date, address, reported cost, and coordinates — and de-duplicates as it goes.
4. Results stream into your dataset, ready to download as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

You don't manage any scrapers, accounts, or infrastructure — just pick cities and press **Run**.

### Use cases

**Track construction activity in a market**
Pull a city's permits filtered to the last 12 months and chart new-construction volume month over month — an early read on local building activity before it shows up in official statistics.

**Find leads for building-material & trade suppliers**
Filter permits by work description (e.g. roofing, electrical, new construction) to build a list of active projects and the addresses behind them.

**Feed a real-estate or lending model**
Join permit counts and reported construction cost by ZIP to a property model to flag neighborhoods with rising development.

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `cities` | multi-select | Pick built-in cities (Chicago, NYC, LA, San Francisco, Austin, Dallas, Seattle, and more). |
| `customDatasets` | list | Optional — point at any other city's open-data table by domain + dataset id. |
| `where` | string | Optional date/field filter, e.g. `issue_date > '2026-01-01T00:00:00'`. |
| `appToken` | string | Optional free token from the data portal — speeds up very large pulls. |
| `pageSize` | integer | Records fetched per request (default 1000). |
| `maxItemsPerDataset` | integer | 0 = all. |

### Output — one record per permit

```json
{
  "_input": "chicago",
  "_source": "S1-socrata",
  "_scrapedAt": "2026-06-03T10:00:00Z",
  "recordType": "PERMIT",
  "city_key": "chicago",
  "permit_": "100123456",
  "permit_type": "PERMIT - NEW CONSTRUCTION",
  "issue_date": "2026-02-14T00:00:00.000",
  "work_description": "...",
  "street_number": "1234", "street_name": "N State St",
  "reported_cost": "250000"
}
```

| Field | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `city_key` | string | Which city the permit is from. |
| `permit_type` | string | Permit category (field names vary slightly by city). |
| `issue_date` | string | When the permit was issued. |
| `work_description` | string | What the work is. |
| `reported_cost` | string | Declared construction cost where available. |

(Each city's portal uses its own column names; all fields are passed through as-is.)

### Known limits

- Public government open-data — no account needed. Very large pulls run faster with a free portal token (optional input).
- Each supported city's table uses its own column names, passed through verbatim.
- Verified across Chicago (837k+), New York (3.9M+), Austin (2.3M+), Los Angeles (392k+) and more.

# Actor input Schema

## `cities` (type: `array`):

Pick one or more built-in city permit datasets. (Need another city? Use Custom datasets below.)

## `customDatasets` (type: `array`):

Any Socrata dataset: \[{"domain":"data.seattle.gov","datasetId":"76t5-zqzr","cityKey":"seattle"}]

## `where` (type: `string`):

Optional. e.g. issue\_date > '2026-01-01T00:00:00' — narrows the pull (and your result count).

## `appToken` (type: `string`):

Optional free token (data.gov / Socrata). Lifts the anonymous rate limit — recommended for large pulls.

## `pageSize` (type: `integer`):

How many permits to fetch per request (default 1000).

## `maxItemsPerDataset` (type: `integer`):

Cap the number of permits pulled per city. 0 means all. The example pulls 500; set 0 for the full dataset.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many cities to process in parallel.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Not required (public open-data API). Leave off unless you hit rate limits.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "cities": [
    "chicago"
  ],
  "customDatasets": [],
  "where": "",
  "pageSize": 1000,
  "maxItemsPerDataset": 500,
  "maxConcurrency": 3,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# 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 = {
    "cities": [
        "chicago"
    ],
    "customDatasets": [],
    "where": "",
    "appToken": "",
    "maxItemsPerDataset": 500
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("xtracto/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 = {
    "cities": ["chicago"],
    "customDatasets": [],
    "where": "",
    "appToken": "",
    "maxItemsPerDataset": 500,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("xtracto/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 '{
  "cities": [
    "chicago"
  ],
  "customDatasets": [],
  "where": "",
  "appToken": "",
  "maxItemsPerDataset": 500
}' |
apify call xtracto/building-permits --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,xtracto/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/phMga7XaXy7B5A3ae/builds/XPvUYpW48D65dCiHf/openapi.json