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Build Intelligence

Released public data for planning a Los Angeles-area project. Permits and price indexes update monthly when agencies publish — they are not live tickers. Each figure lists its source, geography and period.

On this page

Regional construction pulse

Los Angeles County totals. Permits authorize construction; they are not starts or completions, and no ADU subset is published in this series.

New housing units authorized

Los Angeles County, CA · not seasonally adjusted

Cached — source unreachable

3,491housing units · Aug 2026

vs prior month
+51.7%
vs same month last year
+35.6%
Data table & definition

Definition: Housing units authorized by building permits Permit-issuing places in the county; figures include Census imputation for non-reporting places. Authorizations are not starts or completions.

Method: Changes require matched monthly periods and nonzero bases; provisional comparisons are withheld. Census county totals include provider imputation. No interpolation, ranking or project forecast is applied.

New housing units authorized by month
MonthValue
Aug 20263,491
Jul 20262,302
Jun 20261,676
May 20262,308
Apr 20261,562
Mar 20262,417
Feb 20265,084
Jan 20261,975
Dec 20252,664
Nov 20252,331
Oct 20251,917
Sep 20251,772
Aug 20252,575

Cached reading · Sep 24, 2026, 12:28 PM · Period Aug 2026 · Reviewed Sep 24, 2026 · U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey (county, monthly) (opens in a new tab) · BPS county 06037 · Los Angeles County, CA

New residential buildings authorized

Los Angeles County, CA · not seasonally adjusted

Cached — source unreachable

932permitted buildings · Aug 2026

vs prior month
+1.6%
vs same month last year
−2.8%
Data table & definition

Definition: New residential buildings authorized Permit-issuing places in the county; figures include Census imputation for non-reporting places. Authorizations are not starts or completions.

Method: Changes require matched monthly periods and nonzero bases; provisional comparisons are withheld. Census county totals include provider imputation. No interpolation, ranking or project forecast is applied.

New residential buildings authorized by month
MonthValue
Aug 2026932
Jul 2026917
Jun 20261,005
May 2026889
Apr 20261,003
Mar 20261,036
Feb 20261,026
Jan 2026754
Dec 2025898
Nov 2025776
Oct 2025846
Sep 2025856
Aug 2025959

Cached reading · Sep 24, 2026, 12:28 PM · Period Aug 2026 · Reviewed Sep 24, 2026 · U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey (county, monthly) (opens in a new tab) · BPS county 06037 · Los Angeles County, CA

Year to date through Aug 2026 (cached — source unreachable): 20,632 units authorized, +51.9% vs the same months last year. Latest month: 847 single-family units and 2,644 units in 2+ unit buildings (Census county authorizations, including imputation).

Municipal permit intelligence

Two separate records: Census new-housing authorizations by exact place, and Beverly Hills’ own all-permit report. They measure different things and are never added together.

Census BPS · Aug 2026 · compared with Aug 2025

Monthly local brief

  1. 01

    Observed: Across the 6 pilot cities, 2,844 new housing units were authorized; 2,410 (85%) were in 5+ unit buildings. Los Angeles accounts for 87% of the total (25 five-plus buildings holding 2,073 units).

    Reading: A handful of multifamily authorizations can dominate a monthly total. Single-home and 2–4 unit counts are the better signal for ADU and small-lot owners.

  2. 02

    Observed: Same month, prior year (2025-08 → 2026-08) where both reports are actual: Los Angeles 1,544 → 2,478; Beverly Hills 3 → 9; Pasadena 12 → 8; Culver City 5 → 12; Manhattan Beach 8 → 9. Not compared: Santa Monica (imputed or unreported).

    Reading: Change in authorizations only. It does not show approval speed, construction starts or costs, and one month is too short to call a trend.

  3. 03

    Observed: Los Angeles: 343 one-unit, 62 in 2–4 unit buildings and 2,073 in 5+ unit buildings (2,478 total).

    Reading: Most of this city's monthly total comes from larger buildings, so the one-unit count is more relevant to single-property planning.

First stored snapshot (baseline). Month-to-month changes appear once a second real snapshot exists.

  • City zoning/parcel lookup or written confirmation from the planning counter
  • Zoning report from the city (in Los Angeles: ZIMAS parcel profile)
  • City permit records request
  • Licensed land surveyor's survey
  • Utility bills, panel label photo and provider service records
  • Site photos and a measured access path
Methodology

Census Building Permits Survey, matched by exact California place ID (FIPS 06). New units authorized; excludes remodels. Year-over-year is omitted when either side is imputed (code 5) or unreported (9). The data is public; RSA only organizes it. Parser r102-1.

Census BPS · new housing units authorized · exact CA place IDs · Aug 2026
PlaceUnits (month)Same month prior year1-unit5+ unitsYear to dateYTD prior yearReporting
Los Angeles06-440002,4781,5443432,07314,1646,697Reported (C-404 form)
Beverly Hills06-0630893092816Reported (online)
Santa Monica06-7000032843not comparable0328569287Reported (online) · prior year imputed
Pasadena06-560008128093121Equivalent source
Culver City06-1756812512016869Reported (online)
Manhattan Beach06-4540098906260Reported (online)

New privately-owned housing units only; single months are volatile, and one large multifamily approval can dominate. Layout & source codes

Source artifacts · parser r102-1
  • we2608c.txt · sha256 a35c1a4078dd… · retrieved 2026-09-25
  • we2508c.txt · sha256 41f6bf13a706… · retrieved 2026-09-25
  • we2608y.txt · sha256 942b3107c3b3… · retrieved 2026-09-25
  • we2508y.txt · sha256 c988f341eee0… · retrieved 2026-09-25

City of Beverly Hills · monthly issued-permit report · Aug 2026

All building permits issued

Permits
103
Remodel / alteration wording
46
Addition wording
3
Median declared valuation
$10,000

54 permits (repairs, windows, awnings and similar) are left unclassified; 0 described a new building; 0 mentioned an ADU. Declared valuation is the administrative figure used for fees — not construction cost — and an issued-only list cannot show how long review took. Counts are not comparable with the Census new-housing table.

Reconciliation

103 permit IDs parsed, 0 duplicates dropped, 0 unparsed ID lines, 43 wrapped description lines recovered. Declared valuation total $88,270,728 across 100 permits; fees $3,888,010. No addresses or names are republished.

City permit-report archive

Source artifacts · parser r102-1

For an ADU first submission, compare what to bring, the first municipal contact and the unresolved parcel questions in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Culver City, Pasadena and Burbank. Municipal preparation is separate from Census permit-volume context.

Compare municipal first steps and Census context

City of Los Angeles permit activity

Building permits submitted to LADBS, counted by permit number. This is a different record from the Census county authorizations above: it includes alterations, additions and non-residential work, and is never added to them.

Coverage: City of Los Angeles only. Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Culver City, Pasadena, Burbank and unincorporated County areas issue their own permits and are not in this record.

Every permit type in the selected building class. LADBS permit sub-type for single-family and two-unit residential buildings.

Plan-area names are shown as the City records them, with case variants and cut-off spellings merged. 79 records with multi-area or rare values are counted citywide but not under any one area.

Saved copy from 2026-09-26 — the City portal did not respond.

Source refresh · submissions 2020-01-02 to 2026-09-19 · 306,058 permit records, no repeated permit numbers · fetched 2026-09-26

Permits submitted
65,252
…recording an ADU increase
12,401
Permits issued (by issue month)
55,483

24 complete months, Sep 2024–Aug 2026. Sep 2026 is partial (submissions through 2026-09-19; 1,525 so far) and is excluded from totals and the chart.

Bars: permits submitted per complete month. Full figures in the table below.

Monthly table
City of Los Angeles permits by month for the selected filters
MonthSubmittedADU increase permitsADU units recordedJADU permitsIssued
Sep 20242,664544585752,255
Oct 20242,793536570952,297
Nov 20242,283438473672,053
Dec 20242,605560609852,037
Jan 20252,401523571822,231
Feb 20252,439512556682,273
Mar 20252,556552624922,442
Apr 20252,912605658872,456
May 20252,949650707922,504
Jun 20252,722555595722,313
Jul 20252,883554593912,418
Aug 20252,762538578802,422
Sep 20252,892602640692,354
Oct 20252,891548595862,460
Nov 20252,573468511682,032
Dec 20253,057607657792,223
Jan 20262,324444490602,152
Feb 20262,427411441652,283
Mar 20262,877486525642,561
Apr 20262,915481508942,266
May 20262,678464492852,357
Jun 20262,879468502802,382
Jul 20263,098429445722,377
Aug 20262,672426451552,335
Sep 2026 (partial)1,525147155301,384
Exact queries used

Source: Building and Safety — Building Permits Submitted from 2020 to Present (N), City of Los Angeles, Department of Building and Safety (via data.lacity.org). Aggregates only; no addresses, parcels or names are shown. Not RSA projects.

Materials monitor

U.S. national Producer Price Indexes. These describe producer prices nationwide, not what Los Angeles contractors charge.

Inputs to new residential construction

United States · not seasonally adjusted

Cached — source unreachable

349.0index · Aug 2026 (preliminary)

vs prior month
n.a.
vs same month last year
n.a.
Data table & definition

Definition: Goods + services inputs; U.S. national. Index level (base period set by BLS), not a price in dollars. National producer prices. Not Los Angeles contractor pricing and not a bid forecast.

Method: Changes require matched monthly periods and nonzero bases; provisional comparisons are withheld. Census county totals include provider imputation. No interpolation, ranking or project forecast is applied.

Inputs to new residential construction by month
MonthValue
Aug 2026 (P)348.993
Jul 2026 (P)345.804
Jun 2026 (P)344.553
May 2026 (P)346.860
Apr 2026340.195
Mar 2026336.200
Feb 2026329.943
Jan 2026326.043
Dec 2025323.036
Nov 2025324.348
Oct 2025323.182
Sep 2025323.904
Aug 2025323.790
Jul 2025323.198
Jun 2025322.158
May 2025321.184
Apr 2025320.346
Mar 2025321.342
Feb 2025320.028
Jan 2025318.317
Dec 2024313.578
Nov 2024313.877
Oct 2024314.316
Sep 2024313.403
Aug 2024315.735

Cached reading · Sep 24, 2026, 12:28 PM · Period Aug 2026 · Reviewed Sep 24, 2026 · U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Producer Price Index (opens in a new tab) · WPUIP2311001 · United States

Materials & components for construction

United States · not seasonally adjusted

Cached — source unreachable

180.2index · Aug 2026 (preliminary)

vs prior month
n.a.
vs same month last year
n.a.
Data table & definition

Definition: Intermediate demand; U.S. national. Index level (base period set by BLS), not a price in dollars. National producer prices. Not Los Angeles contractor pricing and not a bid forecast.

Method: Changes require matched monthly periods and nonzero bases; provisional comparisons are withheld. Census county totals include provider imputation. No interpolation, ranking or project forecast is applied.

Materials & components for construction by month
MonthValue
Aug 2026 (P)180.235
Jul 2026 (P)179.680
Jun 2026 (P)178.438
May 2026 (P)176.900
Apr 2026175.528
Mar 2026174.732
Feb 2026174.264
Jan 2026173.009
Dec 2025171.428
Nov 2025171.007
Oct 2025170.877
Sep 2025170.806
Aug 2025171.220
Jul 2025171.230
Jun 2025171.260
May 2025171.676
Apr 2025171.516
Mar 2025173.250
Feb 2025172.770
Jan 2025172.489
Dec 2024170.470
Nov 2024170.394
Oct 2024170.013
Sep 2024169.365
Aug 2024169.208

Cached reading · Sep 24, 2026, 12:28 PM · Period Aug 2026 · Reviewed Sep 24, 2026 · U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Producer Price Index (opens in a new tab) · WPUID6121 · United States

Lumber

United States · not seasonally adjusted

Cached — source unreachable

286.6index · Aug 2026 (preliminary)

vs prior month
n.a.
vs same month last year
n.a.
Data table & definition

Definition: Commodity index; U.S. national. Index level (base period set by BLS), not a price in dollars. National producer prices. Not Los Angeles contractor pricing and not a bid forecast.

Method: Changes require matched monthly periods and nonzero bases; provisional comparisons are withheld. Census county totals include provider imputation. No interpolation, ranking or project forecast is applied.

Lumber by month
MonthValue
Aug 2026 (P)286.633
Jul 2026 (P)291.011
Jun 2026 (P)280.234
May 2026 (P)281.228
Apr 2026280.362
Mar 2026270.805
Feb 2026272.101
Jan 2026265.325
Dec 2025259.127
Nov 2025259.469
Oct 2025259.115
Sep 2025259.750
Aug 2025266.293
Jul 2025264.248
Jun 2025266.567
May 2025269.699
Apr 2025274.511
Mar 2025278.435
Feb 2025269.404
Jan 2025264.294
Dec 2024265.797
Nov 2024263.493
Oct 2024258.077
Sep 2024255.227
Aug 2024251.601

Cached reading · Sep 24, 2026, 12:28 PM · Period Aug 2026 · Reviewed Sep 24, 2026 · U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Producer Price Index (opens in a new tab) · WPU081 · United States

Ready-mix concrete

United States · not seasonally adjusted

Cached — source unreachable

395.2index · Aug 2026 (preliminary)

vs prior month
n.a.
vs same month last year
n.a.
Data table & definition

Definition: Commodity index; U.S. national. Index level (base period set by BLS), not a price in dollars. National producer prices. Not Los Angeles contractor pricing and not a bid forecast.

Method: Changes require matched monthly periods and nonzero bases; provisional comparisons are withheld. Census county totals include provider imputation. No interpolation, ranking or project forecast is applied.

Ready-mix concrete by month
MonthValue
Aug 2026 (P)395.186
Jul 2026 (P)394.742
Jun 2026 (P)395.954
May 2026 (P)394.112
Apr 2026392.891
Mar 2026390.985
Feb 2026390.077
Jan 2026390.209
Dec 2025386.202
Nov 2025383.902
Oct 2025385.591
Sep 2025386.267
Aug 2025386.359
Jul 2025385.993
Jun 2025387.394
May 2025387.457
Apr 2025386.098
Mar 2025388.511
Feb 2025389.524
Jan 2025390.311
Dec 2024385.931
Nov 2024387.459
Oct 2024385.351
Sep 2024384.917
Aug 2024386.394

Cached reading · Sep 24, 2026, 12:28 PM · Period Aug 2026 · Reviewed Sep 24, 2026 · U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Producer Price Index (opens in a new tab) · WPU1333 · United States

City weather context

Live forecast unavailable right now. No cached reading is shown.

Source unavailable · National Weather Service (opens in a new tab) · Forecast · municipal-center grid point

Loading the NWS 72-hour forecast…

Open the Los Angeles city guide

Sources, method & review

Census BPS county files count new privately owned housing authorizations for LA County (06037), including imputed nonreporting places; they do not measure starts, completions, ADU approvals or parcel timelines. BLS PPI monthly non-seasonally-adjusted indexes measure national producer prices, not local bids. NWS forecasts describe a municipal-center grid point, not a site forecast. The publication period, forecast valid time and source fetch time are different dates.

City of LA permits (LADBS, data.lacity.org dataset gwh9-jnip): each row is one permit number; each metadata refresh checks that numbers do not repeat, and supplemental or revision permits have their own numbers, so counts are permits, not projects or housing units. “Submitted” uses submitted_date; “Issued” counts permits by issue_date month, a different group of permits, so the two are not a pipeline or approval rate. “ADU increase” means the City’s adu_changed field is above zero; “ADU units recorded” adds those positive values. Permits recording zero or negative ADU change are excluded, and no keyword matching is used. JADU permits have junior_adu above zero (the field contains outliers, so units are not totaled). A month counts only when submissions reach its last day; the partial month is shown separately and never compared. Valuation is the applicant’s estimate for the permit and is not shown or treated as a project price. No review-speed figures are derived. Source refresh time comes from the City’s refresh_time field and is separate from our fetch date. Results are cached for six hours; if the portal fails, the saved copy of the default view is shown, labeled as cached.

Each record above links to its official source and identifies its period, geography and last successful fetch. An unreachable provider uses a dated last-good snapshot labelled cached; absent readings show unavailable rather than zero. Recheck primary publications monthly for Census/BLS and review NWS at use; no automatic source-review job is claimed.

City planning and construction context

Official reference points for the selected city. A published work window is a compliance question, not a project schedule.

Los Angeles · Los Angeles County

Construction work window

No exact city work window is shown because an applicable official statement has not been verified for this selection. Confirm the address, activity and current city rules before scheduling.

Source checked · Official city planning authority (opens in a new tab) · Rules can change; verify before work

Budget & scope decision tool

Your own assumptions, kept in this tab only — not a quote, forecast or loan offer. National material indexes above are context; they do not move your bid automatically.

Price-change sensitivity

Base = your project budget before contingency (materials, labor, permits & fees and anything unassigned). Shares split that same base, so nothing is counted twice.

Share of base and your hypothetical change (−100% to +1000%)
Materials
Labor
Permits & fees
Base + contingency
$330,000
Scenario total
$330,000
Difference
$0 (0.0%)
Monthly payment difference
$0

Unassigned $45,000 (15.0%) is held unchanged. No price change entered, so the scenario equals the base.

Compare scopes, not just totals

Type 2–3 bids you already have. Mark each category as it is written in the bid. Excluded or unknown items stay unresolved — not $0 — until you enter your own placeholder.

Bid A
Bid B

Put the context to work

Compare your own project assumptions.

Project Studio keeps the public observations above separate from homeowner-entered budget scenarios.

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