Fifteen lists, five feeds, the issue date
Los Angeles publishes one permit feed, from the Department of Building and Safety, about a week behind. Every list here is cut from it by the city's own permit type, and every one is keyed on the day the permit was issued: a filed permit is a plan, an issued one is a job that may start tomorrow. They arrive at 6:30am Pacific, and you choose which.
- New buildings issued — permit type Bldg-New. Cranes, lifts and generators; the valuation is the applicant's own figure.
- Demolition issued — Bldg-Demolition. Excavators, breakers and a dumpster follow.
- Major work issued — any permit with a declared valuation over $250,000.
- Additions issued — the second storey, the rear unit, the ADU.
- Grading issued — earthwork, which happens at the start of a job.
- Pools and spas issued — excavation, plumbing and a crane for the shell.
The other end of the permit
The department also publishes the certificate that ends a job: the sign-off that the work passed and the building may be used. Two lists are cut from that feed, which runs about two weeks behind, measured. A third comes from the vacant-building abatement register.
- Buildings completed — every certificate of occupancy issued. New homes coming to market, and the contractor's job ending.
- New homes completed — certificates on new buildings with at least one dwelling unit: the homes that actually opened, as against the permits that promised them.
- Vacant buildings ordered abated — buildings LADBS has ordered secured or abated as vacant. Board-up and demolition work for a contractor; a distressed building for a buyer. A place, never a person: the register also carries the inspector's name, which is never requested.
The trades, from the trades' own feeds
The department publishes its electrical permits as their own feed, and its mechanical feed carries plumbing, HVAC, fire-sprinkler, elevator and pressure-vessel permits as permit types. Six lists are cut from those two, and they are what the Trade plan carries in Los Angeles.
- Electrical permits issued — rewiring, panels, solar and EV charging, from the electrical feed.
- Solar permits issued — the electrical permits the department flags as solar.
- Plumbing permits issued — re-pipes, water heaters, sewer lines, gas.
- HVAC permits issued — heating and air-conditioning.
- Fire-sprinkler permits issued — the work the fire code demands before a building opens.
- Elevator permits issued — new installations and the modernisations a building's age forces.
Counts run 4 September 2026.