Virginia building permit data
Markets on record
13Permits on record
138,648Available
9Buy a market
Weekly feed. Every permit in the market, every week. The first delivery carries the last 13 weeks, then it arrives every Sunday.
Full history. Everything we hold for the market in one file, bought once.
Files include every trade and work type. Filter to yours in one click.
Every file carries the same 9 columns on every row: the market, the permit number, the issue date, the work type and trade, the source feed's own class, and where the row came from.
Norfolk, VA
Available106,457
permits on record, 211 last week
Weekly feed available when this market clears our completeness bar.
Plus addresses on 100.0%, contractor names on 0.0%, declared values on 89.2%, ZIPs on 2.9%, measured across every row we hold.
Names are on 0% for the contractor and 0% for the owner of recent rows.
Virginia Beach, VA
Available13,697
permits on record, 527 last week
Weekly feed available when this market clears our completeness bar.
Plus addresses on 100.0%, contractor names on 1.5%, declared values on 0.0%, ZIPs on 99.4%, measured across every row we hold.
Names are on 3% for the contractor and 0% for the owner of recent rows. Declared value is on 0% of recent rows.
Goochland County, VA
Available3,704
permits on record, through 2026-08-07
Plus addresses on 99.3%, contractor names on 87.8%, declared values on 96.9%, ZIPs on 99.3%, measured across every row we hold.
History runs to 2026-08-07 and stops there, so that is what the file holds.
Albemarle County, VA
Available3,687
permits on record, through 2026-08-09
Weekly feed available when this market clears our completeness bar.
Plus addresses on 95.4%, contractor names on 94.7%, declared values on 11.9%, ZIPs on 95.4%, measured across every row we hold.
Declared value is on 47% of recent rows.
History runs to 2026-08-09 and stops there, so that is what the file holds.
James City County, VA
Available3,153
permits on record, through 2026-08-08
Plus addresses on 100.0%, contractor names on 61.1%, declared values on 26.2%, ZIPs on 100.0%, measured across every row we hold.
History runs to 2026-08-08 and stops there, so that is what the file holds.
Chesapeake, VA
Available2,160
permits on record, 237 last week
Weekly feed available when this market clears our completeness bar.
Plus addresses on 100.0%, contractor names on 4.8%, declared values on 0.0%, ZIPs on 100.0%, measured across every row we hold.
Names are on 5% for the contractor and 0% for the owner of recent rows. Declared value is on 0% of recent rows.
Fairfax County, VA
Available1,856
permits on record, through 2026-06-25
Weekly feed available when this market clears our completeness bar.
Plus addresses on 100.0%, contractor names on 0.0%, declared values on 41.5%, ZIPs on 100.0%, measured across every row we hold.
This market's newest permit is 58 days behind the freshest data we hold. Names are on 0% for the contractor and 0% for the owner of recent rows.
History runs to 2026-06-25 and stops there, so that is what the file holds.
Newkent County, VA
Available827
permits on record, through 2026-08-07
Full history available once this market reaches 1,000 permits on record.
Plus addresses on 100.0%, contractor names on 89.2%, declared values on 32.3%, ZIPs on 100.0%, measured across every row we hold.
Waynesboro, VA
Available707
permits on record, through 2026-08-07
Full history available once this market reaches 1,000 permits on record.
Plus addresses on 99.7%, contractor names on 85.0%, declared values on 91.8%, ZIPs on 99.2%, measured across every row we hold.
Get a Virginia sample
Pick the markets you want to see, and we will email you real rows from them. Markets below our completeness bar can still be sampled; they are marked so you know before you look.
Every number here is computed from what we hold. See exactly what we cover.
Markets and completeness
4 of 13 markets here can be bought as a feed. The rest are sample only, and what each one is short of is on its row below.
Every figure is computed from what we actually hold. A market with no permits on record is not listed.
| Market | Permits | Recent | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|
Norfolk, VA
CompletenessAddress 100.0% all timeContractor not published by this feedDeclared value 89.2% all timeZIP 2.9% all timeData since 2012-04
|
106,457 | 211 last week | Available |
Virginia Beach, VA
CompletenessAddress 100.0% all timeContractor 1.5% all timeDeclared value 0.0% all timeZIP 99.4% all timeData since 2026-02
|
13,697 | 527 last week | Available |
Goochland County, VA
CompletenessAddress 99.3% all timeContractor 87.8% all timeDeclared value 96.9% all timeZIP 99.3% all timeData since 2025-07
|
3,704 | through 2026-08-07 | Available |
Albemarle County, VA
CompletenessAddress 95.4% all timeContractor 94.7% all timeDeclared value 11.9% all timeZIP 95.4% all timeData since 2025-07
|
3,687 | through 2026-08-09 | Available |
James City County, VA
CompletenessAddress 100.0% all timeContractor 61.1% all timeDeclared value 26.2% all timeZIP 100.0% all timeData since 2026-01
|
3,153 | through 2026-08-08 | Available |
Chesapeake, VA
CompletenessAddress 100.0% all timeContractor 4.8% all timeDeclared value 0.0% all timeZIP 100.0% all timeData since 2026-06
|
2,160 | 237 last week | Available |
Fairfax County, VA
CompletenessAddress 100.0% all timeContractor not published by this feedDeclared value 41.5% all timeZIP 100.0% all timeData since 2026-01
|
1,856 | through 2026-06-25 | Available |
Newkent County, VA
CompletenessAddress 100.0% all timeContractor 89.2% all timeDeclared value 32.3% all timeZIP 100.0% all timeData since 2026-01
|
827 | through 2026-08-07 | Available |
Fluvanna County, VA
CompletenessAddress 100.0% all timeContractor 91.4% all timeDeclared value 32.4% all timeZIP 99.9% all timeData since 2025-11
This market runs 96 permits in a recent period, below the 120 we require before selling a feed. Declared value is on 33% of recent rows, under the 50% floor, and this market carries no published note explaining the absence. |
765 | through 2026-08-06 | Sample only |
Charlottesville, VA
CompletenessAddress 99.9% all timeContractor 0.0% all timeDeclared value 0.0% all timeZIP 92.2% all timeData since 2026-02
Names are on 0% for the contractor and 0% for the owner of recent rows, and a feed we sell needs one of them above 70%. Declared value is on 0% of recent rows, under the 50% floor, and this market carries no published note explaining the absence. Our own extraction is currently dropping a field this market publishes, so it is held back until that is healed. |
739 | 44 last week | Sample only |
Waynesboro, VA
CompletenessAddress 99.7% all timeContractor 85.0% all timeDeclared value 91.8% all timeZIP 99.2% all timeData since 2026-04
|
707 | through 2026-08-07 | Available |
Accomack County, VA
CompletenessAddress 99.1% all timeContractor 18.3% all timeDeclared value 8.9% all timeZIP 98.0% all timeData since 2026-01
This market runs 99 permits in a recent period, below the 120 we require before selling a feed. Names are on 19% for the contractor and 48% for the owner of recent rows, and a feed we sell needs one of them above 70%. Declared value is on 14% of recent rows, under the 50% floor, and this market carries no published note explaining the absence. |
540 | through 2026-08-08 | Sample only |
Lynchburg, VA
CompletenessAddress 100.0% all timeContractor 0.0% all timeDeclared value 97.8% all timeZIP 97.8% all timeData since 2026-02
This market runs 65 permits in a recent period, below the 120 we require before selling a feed. |
356 | 11 last week | Sample only |
Reference
What a feed includes, the exact columns, where the rows come from, and what we will not claim. Open what you need.
What a feed includes
A feed is the underlying permit records for the markets you name, delivered on a schedule you set, as one row per permit with the columns listed below. It is the same data behind every number on this page, without the product wrapped around it: you get the file and use it inside the terms you agree to. For Virginia that means every market listed above, or any subset of them, with the completeness shown per market rather than promised in general.
What every file includes, 18 columns
| Column | Type | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| city_slug | text | Our stable identifier for the jurisdiction that issued the permit. |
| city_name | text | Display name of that jurisdiction. |
| permit_number | text | The issuing authority's own permit identifier, verbatim. |
| issue_date | date | Date the permit was issued, as published by the source. |
| address | text | Site address of the work, as published. |
| zip | text | Site ZIP. Published by the feed where available, otherwise derived from the address by the Census geocoder. zip_source records which. |
| latitude | text | Census geocoder latitude, present only for confident address matches. |
| longitude | text | Census geocoder longitude, present only for confident address matches. |
| permit_type | text | Work type axis: RENOVATION, REMODEL, ADDITION or REPAIR. Null when the row is a specialty trade instead. |
| trade | text | Trade axis: ROOFING, ELECTRICAL, HVAC, PLUMBING, SOLAR or POOL. Null when the row is a work type instead. |
| source_class | text | The source feed's own work class, verbatim and upper cased. The closest thing in the row to the issuing authority's own taxonomy. |
| category | text | TRADE when a specialty trade was detected, RESIDENTIAL when a work type was detected. Not a building occupancy flag. |
| declared_cost | integer | Applicant declared job value in whole dollars. An estimate supplied at application, never an actual cost. |
| contractor | text | Contractor of record, as published. |
| contractor_license | text | Contractor licence or registration number where the source publishes one. |
| owner | text | Owner of record, as published. In the files you buy only, never shown on a page, in an email, or in the dashboard. |
| ward | text | Ward or council district where the source publishes one. |
| source | text | Where the row came from: straight from the city, the city's open data, or an aggregated feed. |
Where these rows come from
Direct. We pull the issuing authority's own publication ourselves, on our own schedule. Fastest to reflect a change at the source, and the shape of the file is whatever that authority publishes.
City open data. The jurisdiction publishes its permits as an open dataset under terms that grant reuse, and we ingest it under those terms. Every one of these was read by a person before it was switched on, and the licence is recorded per city.
Aggregated feed. The records reach us through a permit data aggregator that has already gathered them from the issuing authority. Broadest reach and the most normalisation applied before we see it, which is why the source column tells you which rows came this way.
One row per permit, not one row per update. A permit that is amended, re-inspected or re-issued does not become a second record: rows are collapsed on the issuing authority's own permit number within a jurisdiction, and where two sources both describe the same permit we keep one and compare the rest. What that means for you is that a count of rows is a count of permits, so you can bill, forecast and prospect off it without deduplicating anything yourself.
The honest part
Building permits carry no phone numbers and no email addresses, so no honest permit feed includes them. How complete each field is varies by jurisdiction because publication varies by jurisdiction: some authorities publish contractor names and some do not, and where one does not you get an explicit note rather than an empty column you might mistake for a bad extraction. Every completeness figure on this page is computed from what we actually hold.
Why is a market sample only?
We only sell markets with complete data. Every figure on this page is computed from what we actually hold, and you see exactly what a market carries before you pay. Anything short of complete is sample only until it clears the bar.
Custom feeds and embedded use are quoted per deal. Email us and a person will answer.
Our coverage and field fill, every city / All permit data feeds