Research / PermitPulse
New Commercial Building Permits for Subcontractors: 2026 statistics from 895 public records
The most common trade is New Build / Shell: 365 of 895 records (40.8%) (as of 2026-11-04; source: City of Austin, City of Chicago, City of Los Angeles, Montgomery County MD and City of Cincinnati open-data building permits).
Data as of · Compiled by Zalwin from City of Austin, City of Chicago, City of Los Angeles, Montgomery County MD and City of Cincinnati open-data building permits
Key findings
- Zalwin's PermitPulse dataset holds 895 PermitPulse records dated 2026-07-01 to 2026-11-02 (as of 2026-11-04; source: City of Austin, City of Chicago, City of Los Angeles, Montgomery County MD and City of Cincinnati open-data building permits). #
- The most common trade is New Build / Shell: 365 of 895 records (40.8%) (as of 2026-11-04; source: City of Austin, City of Chicago, City of Los Angeles, Montgomery County MD and City of Cincinnati open-data building permits). #
- Across 895 records with a stated valuation, the total is $9,156,830,270 and the median is $443,000; the largest is $812,383,209 (500 E 3RD ST, Austin TX) (as of 2026-11-04; source: City of Austin, City of Chicago, City of Los Angeles, Montgomery County MD and City of Cincinnati open-data building permits). #
- The top 10% of records by valuation (90 of 895) account for 95.4% of the total (as of 2026-11-04; source: City of Austin, City of Chicago, City of Los Angeles, Montgomery County MD and City of Cincinnati open-data building permits). #
- 530 of 895 records (59.2%) are dated within the 30 days before 2026-11-04 (source: City of Austin, City of Chicago, City of Los Angeles, Montgomery County MD and City of Cincinnati open-data building permits). #
PermitPulse records by trade
| Group | Records | Share | Total valuation |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Build / Shell | 365 | 40.8% | $8,464,188,876 |
| Commercial TI / Remodel | 243 | 27.2% | $229,769,560 |
| HVAC / Mechanical | 110 | 12.3% | $122,525,078 |
| Roofing | 89 | 9.9% | $151,138,927 |
| Other | 44 | 4.9% | $31,851,516 |
| Electrical | 44 | 4.9% | $157,356,314 |
Methodology and data provenance
- Sample: 895 public records dated 2026-07-01 to 2026-11-02; illustrative samples excluded.
- Source: City of Austin, City of Chicago, City of Los Angeles, Montgomery County MD and City of Cincinnati open-data building permits. Refreshed automatically about every 12 hours; figures above are as of 2026-11-04.
- Shares are of all records in the dataset; totals and medians use only records with a stated valuation.
- Organization-level data only. Informational; verify individual records at the official source.
Cite this study
Zalwin Research, "PermitPulse statistics" (data as of 2026-11-04), https://zalwin.com/research/permitpulse