Contractor Records
Home › Durham

Durham, NC building permits

Data through September 2026 · updated 19 Oct 2026

8,855 building permits in the Durham City-County Inspections building-permit file were issued in Durham from October 2024 to September 2026, about 4,428 a year. New home permits lead with 4,838, then remodels & repairs (1,695) and additions (809). 100% were for homes. The city's file doesn't name contractors, so we can't rank, compare or profile firms here: these pages show what was built, when and how fast the city signed it off.

What this file covers: Building permits only: electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits are not in the file.

8,855permits issued
4,428a year
100%for homes
87%finished (Oct 2024–Sep 2025 permits)
154days, usual issue to final
Sep 2026records through

What gets built here

New homes

4,838permits
2,218last 12 mo
173days to final

Remodels & repairs

1,695permits
877last 12 mo
99days to final

Additions

809permits
370last 12 mo
143days to final

Solar

534permits
228last 12 mo
60days to final

Garages, sheds & shade structures

233permits
111last 12 mo
86days to final

What this page can and can't show

  • ✓The permits in the Durham City-County Inspections building-permit file, by kind of work and month.
  • ✓How long a permit takes from issue to the city's final inspection.
  • ✓Which permits finished or are still open.
  • ✓What the job was declared at on the permit.
  • Who did the work. The city's file doesn't name contractors, so we can't rank, compare or profile firms here.
  • Where, by ZIP code. The file carries no usable ZIP code.
  • Street addresses or owners. We publish counts and permit rows without them.

Residential building permits from Durham City-County Inspections, the joint office that issues permits for the City of Durham and for unincorporated Durham County: new houses, townhouses and duplexes, additions, alterations, repairs, decks, roofs, accessory buildings and demolitions. Commercial permits and buildings of five or more units in the same file are not counted. Electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits are not in this file. Chapel Hill, Raleigh and the other Triangle towns run their own permit offices and are not in this file.

Hiring someone here?

The permit file can't tell you who does good work. Ask for the contractor's license number and look it up at the North Carolina Licensing Board for General Contractors, then ask the city whether they pulled the permit for your job.

How to check a contractor's license in North Carolina →

Permits by kind of work

Permits issued October 2024 through September 2026, every kind of work with 100 or more. Last 12 months is Oct 2025–Sep 2026. Homes is the share issued as residential permits.

Kind of workPermitsShareLast 12 mo
New homes4,83855%2,218
Remodels & repairs1,69519%877
Additions8099%370
Solar5346%228
Garages, sheds & shade structures2333%111
Demolition1922%128
Pools & spas1041%53
Other3324%168

Fewer than 100 permits, so no row: ADUs & casitas (92), roofing (19), fences & walls (7).

Download this table (CSV)

Durham permit statistics →How long permits take in Durham →Durham building permit search: the LDO portal, statuses and records →

Before you start a project

All guides →

Guides for Durham

Local permit rules and lookups, each with Durham's own permit numbers.

Nearby permit data

Permit data for other places in Raleigh–Durham. Each permit office keeps its own file, so the numbers are not added together.

Raleigh, NCCary, NCWake County, NCHolly Springs, NC

How these numbers are made

Source: City and County of Durham GIS, All Building Permits (PublicServices/Inspections MapServer layer 12; Durham Open Data), read 19 Oct 2026. We count permits issued October 2024 through September 2026; denied and withdrawn permits are left out.

Residential building permits from Durham City-County Inspections, the joint office that issues permits for the City of Durham and for unincorporated Durham County: new houses, townhouses and duplexes, additions, alterations, repairs, decks, roofs, accessory buildings and demolitions. Commercial permits and buildings of five or more units in the same file are not counted. Electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits are not in this file. Chapel Hill, Raleigh and the other Triangle towns run their own permit offices and are not in this file.

  • The file names no contractor, so there are no contractor lists, rankings or firm pages for Durham.
  • This is the building permit file only. Electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits are published only as a list of permits still open, so they are not counted.
  • The file covers the City of Durham and unincorporated Durham County together and does not say which a permit is in.
  • A permit counts as finished once the office issues its certificate of occupancy or completion; the final date is that sign-off date. The file has no expired status.
  • Solar, roofing, pools, fences and additions are sorted out of the broad alteration and repair permits by their work description. Decks count under Other.
  • The value is the building cost declared on the permit. The file has no ZIP code we can publish, so there are no ZIP code pages.
  • Each new townhouse unit gets its own permit, so new homes count units, not buildings. Townhouses are about half of the new homes.

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, "Durham, NC building permits", https://contractorrecords.com/durham/, data through September 2026, from Durham City-County Inspections building-permit records.

Link to a table: By kind of work · Browse the permits · Permits each month.

Download the tables (CSV): Permits by kind of work · Permits in the last 12 months.

Common questions

  • How many building permits does Durham issue a year?About 4,428 a year in Durham: 8,855 permits issued October 2024 through September 2026, 4,213 of them in the last 12 months. That counts the permits in the Durham City-County Inspections building-permit file, all for homes, not denied or withdrawn applications; the file doesn't hold every permit the city issues (see what it covers above).
  • Can I find a contractor's permits in Durham?Not from this file: the city publishes its permits without the contractor's name, so we can't list or rank firms. Check a license at the North Carolina Licensing Board for General Contractors and ask the contractor for the permit number of a past job.
  • What do people build most in Durham?New homes: 4,838 of the 8,855 permits (55%), then remodels & repairs (1,695), additions (809), October 2024 through September 2026.
  • How long does a building permit take in Durham?The usual permit took 154 days from issue to the city's final (middle half: 109 to 207 days), from 4,052 permits issued Oct 2024–Sep 2025 that reached a final. Each kind of work →
  • How do I look up a building permit in Durham?Filter the permit list on this page by month, kind of work to see what was issued. For one property's permits, search the city's own records by address or permit number; we don't publish addresses. How to look up a permit in Durham →
  • How many permits were issued in Durham last month?353 in September 2026, the last full month on file; 4,213 over the last 12 months.

Browse the permits

Browse 8,855 permits

Every permit in the file issued October 2024 through September 2026, newest first. Pick a month, a kind of work or a status. Each row is one permit: no street address, no names.

The list loads as you reach it (8,855 permits).

IssuedKind of workCity permit typeStatus

Permits each month, the last 12 months

Permits issued each month and the kind of work with the most. A month opens its permits in the list above.

MonthPermitsTop kind of work
Sep 2026353New homes (134)
Aug 2026355New homes (199)
Jul 2026375New homes (170)
Jun 2026394New homes (236)
May 2026418New homes (200)
Apr 2026387New homes (197)
Mar 2026381New homes (226)
Feb 2026322New homes (175)
Jan 2026175New homes (128)
Dec 2025237New homes (116)
Nov 2025306New homes (178)
Oct 2025510New homes (259)

Download this table (CSV)