Original research

Top 10 US Cities by Recent Residential Building Permits

PlainCities ranks US cities by total residential building permits issued in 2024 using HUD Building Permits Survey data.

Compiled by PlainCities Editorial on 2026-05-17

Research question

Among the 28,702 US cities tracked in PlainCities, which cities are experiencing the highest rate of new residential construction in 2024, and how does single-family permit volume compare to multifamily permit volume in the leading cities?

Methodology

Every number on this page is read from PlainCities' current dataset at the moment you load it, ranked from highest to lowest and limited to the top 10. The page does not hardcode a separate table; it reflects the active, validated dataset.

Values are shown in the units and precision published by U.S. Census Bureau. Where the source reports figures in thousands or millions, we scale them for readability; where the source reports raw counts, we preserve them with standard thousand-separators. Records with a missing or zero value on the ranking metric are excluded rather than shown as artificial zeros.

The U.S. Census Bureau publishes the Building Permits Survey on its own release schedule. PlainCities updates this ranking after it ingests and validates a refreshed release; agency revisions follow the same review path. See the methodology page for the active source vintage and refresh history.

Outliers are shown as published, not silently smoothed or clipped, so readers can judge them in context via the source link. Where the source changes its reporting period, column definitions, or coverage scope between releases, we note it on the methodology page rather than blending incompatible vintages into one ranking.

PlainCities maintains an editorial standards process for how rankings are built, how outliers are handled, and how disputed values are corrected. The byline at the top of this page names the editorial owner accountable for its framing. Every figure traces back to the original U.S. Census Bureau record via the citation below, so independent verification never requires anything beyond the public source. Corrections, takedowns, or clarifications can be requested through the contact channels in the site footer.

Top 10 US cities by recent residential building permits

Live building-permit counts ranked from the portal database

residential permits

What this shows Fort Worth has the highest recent permit count in the current ranking; each bar uses the same permit definition.

Source U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey

The ranked top 10

Every row below reflects PlainCities' current dataset (10 rows shown). It changes after PlainCities ingests and validates a refreshed source release.

# City State Total permits 2024 Single-family permits Multifamily permits Population
1 Fort Worth TX 13,148 6,257 6,891 941,311
2 Houston TX 11,898 6,808 5,090 2,300,419
3 Los Angeles CA 10,488 3,041 7,447 3,857,897
4 Austin TX 9,444 1,946 7,498 967,862
5 Phoenix AZ 8,997 4,062 4,935 1,624,832
6 Atlanta GA 8,109 791 7,318 499,287
7 Nashville-Davidson metropolitan government (balance) TN 6,799 2,662 4,137 684,298
8 San Diego CA 6,615 775 5,840 1,385,061
9 Jacksonville FL 6,398 5,037 1,361 961,739
10 San Antonio TX 6,258 5,000 1,258 1,458,954

Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development / U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey. Figures are read from PlainCities' current dataset after the source release has been ingested and validated. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development / U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey. Figures are read from PlainCities' current dataset after the source release has been ingested and validated.

Findings

Top entity in the ranking

The top-ranked record in this dataset is Fort Worth, with a value of 13,148 on the Total permits 2024 column. The full top-10 set is rendered in the table above. No number on this page is hardcoded. When U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development / U.S. Census Bureau publishes a revision, PlainCities validates and ingests it before the ranking and its prose reflect the new vintage.

Distribution shape

The gap between the top-ranked record (13,148) and the 10th-ranked record (6,258) characterizes how concentrated the top of the distribution is. Where the top value is many multiples of the median value of the visible set, the population is highly concentrated, a small number of entities accumulate the bulk of the measured quantity. Where the top and bottom of the visible set are close together, the distribution is relatively flat across the top end. The full distribution beyond this top-10 cut is summarized in the aggregate context section below and explored in the linked entity profiles.

Aggregate context

Across the full population behind this ranking, here are the summary statistics: how many records exist in total, the sum of the ranking metric across all qualifying records, and the mean per-record value. The methodology page documents the exact filter applied (records with null or zero values on the ranking metric are excluded). This aggregate row is computed from the same dataset that powers the ranking above.

Source provenance

The records in this ranking originate from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development / U.S. Census Bureau, specifically the Building Permits Survey. PlainCities serves the current ingested vintage from its dataset rather than a static export. A newly published source vintage appears here after the documented ingest-and-validation process is complete. The methodology page documents the source URL, the vintage date, and how the figures are compiled.

Why this ranking matters

Rankings like this one let a reader scan a population quickly and identify outliers, concentrations, and patterns that warrant deeper investigation. The detail pages linked from each entity in the table above give the full per-entity context: time-series history where available, related metrics from adjacent tables, and links onward to the underlying source records. The methodology page explains how an entity earns inclusion in the dataset and how the ranking column is computed at the source.

What this analysis cannot tell us

Building permit counts come from the HUD Building Permits Survey, which aggregates permits issued by local jurisdictions for new residential construction. Counts include privately-owned units permitted; public housing and government-financed units may be reported separately. Permit issuance is an indicator of intent to build, not completed construction; some permits expire unused and projects can be cancelled after permits issue. Multifamily permit counts include all units within multifamily structures (a single permit for a 200-unit apartment building counts as 200 multifamily units). Cities with significant suburban annexation activity can show elevated permits without a corresponding population gain on the same survey cycle. Per-capita rates apply a population floor of 25,000 and total-permit floor of 100 to exclude small jurisdictions where a single large project dominates the ratio.

Permit intensity among qualifying cities

Permits per 1,000 residents, population 25,000+ and at least 100 permits

permits per 1,000 residents

What this shows This rate-based companion ranking reduces the advantage of large cities by comparing permit activity against each city’s population.

Source U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey

Related data

Sources

Every figure on PlainCities is rendered directly from Census ACS source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on Census ACS source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.