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Building permits in 48205, Detroit

Data through September 2026 · updated 18 Oct 2026

2,434 building permits were issued in ZIP code 48205 by the City of Detroit Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department, October 2024 through September 2026: 5% of the 51,876 in Detroit, the 9th busiest ZIP code. HVAC permits lead with 676. 982 permits in the last 12 months (Oct 2025–Sep 2026), 32% fewer than the 1,452 in the 12 months before. Permits from a city that runs its own permit office are not counted.

2,434permits in 48205
982last 12 months
92%for homes
Sep 2026records through

Permits in 48205 by kind of work

Share here is the part of the 2,434 permits in 48205; citywide is the same for all of Detroit.

Kind of workPermitsShare hereCitywide
HVAC67628%25%
Plumbing48320%26%
Electrical41917%19%
Remodels & repairs39416%14%
Demolition27211%4%
Roofing984%4%
Solar23under 1%under 1%
Garages, sheds & shade structures3under 1%under 1%
Other663%7%

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Permits in 48205 by year

Permits issued in each calendar year of the window.

YearMonthsPermitsPer year
2024 (from October)33011,204
2025121,4361,436
2026 (through September)9697929

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How these numbers are made

Source: City of Detroit Open Data, BSEED Building Permits, Trades Permits and Demolition Permits layers, read 18 Oct 2026. We count permits issued October 2024 through September 2026; denied and withdrawn permits are left out. The city's public permit layers carry an issue date but no permit status and no final inspection or closed date, so no finished share is shown.

Building, trades (mechanical, electrical, plumbing, elevator, fire alarm, boiler, generator) and demolition permits the City of Detroit Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department (BSEED) issues inside city limits. Revisions of an earlier permit are not counted again. Hamtramck, Highland Park, Dearborn and the rest of Wayne County run their own permit offices and are not in this file.

  • The city's file has no permit status and no final inspection date, so we show neither a finished share nor time to final.
  • Only building permits carry a value: the estimated contractor cost written on the application, not the final cost. Trade and demolition permits have no value, so the HVAC, electrical, plumbing and demolition figures carry none.
  • Detroit issues electrical, plumbing and mechanical work as separate trades permits, so one house job can count several times, once under each kind of work. A building alteration that mentions trade work stays a remodel.
  • Plumbing counts include the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department's lead service line and water main replacement programmes, which file thousands of plumbing permits a year.
  • Homes are told apart by the building permit's use group and use type and, for trade and demolition permits, by the property class on the city assessor's parcel file.

Counts are permits, not jobs: one job can need several permits. Nobody paid to be on this page and nobody can. Sources and definitions →

Cite this page

Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY 4.0). Please credit Contractor Records and link to this page. Suggested citation:

Contractor Records, "Building permits in 48205, Detroit", https://contractorrecords.com/detroit/zip/48205, data through September 2026, from the City of Detroit Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department building-permit records.

Link to a table: By kind of work · By year.

Download the tables (CSV): Permits in 48205 by kind of work · Permits in 48205 by year.

Common questions

  • How many building permits were issued in 48205?2,434 permits issued by the city in ZIP code 48205, October 2024 through September 2026: 676 HVAC, 483 plumbing, 419 electrical. 982 were in the last 12 months.
  • What is built most in 48205?HVAC: 676 of the 2,434 permits (28%), against 25% citywide.
  • Who did the work in 48205?The city's file names contractors, but only on trade and demolition permits, as a contact business that is not always the licensed contractor of record, and never on building permits, so we don't rate, rank or count firms from it, so we don't list them by ZIP code. Ask a contractor for the permit numbers of past jobs and check them with the city.