Census Building Permits — residential construction authorized by county

Dataset · US Census Bureau · primary source ↗

New privately-owned residential construction authorized by building permit, per US county and year (2015–2025): buildings, housing units, and construction valuation by structure type — single-family (1-unit), 2-units, 3-4 units, and 5+ units (multifamily). 33,376 county-years across 3,057 counties; 1.43M units / $379B authorized in 2025. Aggregate counts — zero PII. A leading housing-supply indicator that joins to FHFA house prices, USDA ag, and RMA crop insurance by county GEOID. Canonical /building-permits/{state_fips}-{county_fips} page per county. From the Census Building Permits Survey bulk (key-free). Note: Connecticut's 2023 FIPS recode means pre/post-2023 CT GEOIDs are distinct.

Source agency
US Census Bureau
License
CC0 / US public domain
Coverage
~33,376 county-years (2015–2025); ~3,057 counties
API endpoint

Keywords

building permitsBPSresidential constructionhousing unitssingle-familymultifamilyconstruction valuationhousing supplyCensuscounty housingnew homes

Provenance

Every record in this dataset can be traced back to its primary source at https://www.census.gov/construction/bps/. Underlying content is a US federal government work (public domain under 17 USC §105); our derived data is licensed CC0 1.0.

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