Solar cost by city
| City | Solar permits | Installers | Usual filed value | Middle half of installers' usual job | Usual days to final | Reached final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seattle, WA | 1,858 | 69 | $15,040 | $5,000–$19,200 | 43 | 97.0% |
| Arlington, VA | 608 | 41 | $16,000 | $9,166–$26,000 | 47 | 97.9% |
| Anaheim, CA | 1,112 | 258 | $16,000 | $10,000–$22,000 | 103 | 80.1% |
| Chicago, IL | 5,027 | 58 | $17,784 | $15,125–$29,940 | 57 | 74.6% |
| Pittsburgh, PA | 926 | 59 | $17,782 | $14,000–$22,140 | 56 | 80.3% |
| St. Louis, MO | 148 | 51 | $20,000 | $14,675–$28,612 | 154 | 82.8% |
| Boulder, CO | 1,489 | 112 | $21,000 | $6,750–$28,742 | 72 | 93.8% |
| Naperville, IL | 341 | 57 | $21,450 | $14,600–$41,896 | 107 | 78.0% |
| Medford, OR | 643 | 26 | $23,000 | $17,317–$27,171 | 34 | 96.7% |
| Sacramento County, CA | 2,001 | 236 | $25,200 | $14,505–$32,507 | 50 | 86.5% |
| Greensboro, NC | 397 | 33 | $26,241 | $18,822–$33,940 | 103 | 78.4% |
| Honolulu, HI | 16,068 | 110 | $27,500 | $22,000–$39,949 | 102 | 83.4% |
| Citrus Heights, CA | 366 | 77 | $27,510 | $17,507–$31,095 | 55 | 81.8% |
| Denton, TX | 226 | 76 | $28,072 | $22,565–$41,275 | 35 | 95.1% |
| Cape Coral, FL | 1,034 | 88 | $30,378 | $23,145–$37,523 | 49 | 97.9% |
| Cary, NC | 600 | 37 | $30,900 | $25,000–$34,365 | 45 | 87.8% |
| Miami, FL | 388 | 74 | $31,827 | $23,757–$48,240 | 52 | 96.9% |
| Somerville, MA | 324 | 77 | $34,412 | $29,900–$37,825 | 91 | 78.7% |
| Wilmington, NC | 287 | 20 | $34,741 | $23,763–$44,732 | 71 | 80.4% |
| New York City, NY | 19,067 | 87 | $37,400 | $28,989–$44,647 | 144 | 84.2% |
City pages with more detail: Honolulu, New York City, Sacramento County, Chicago, Seattle, Cape Coral.
Unlike a remodel, solar is a fairly standard job, and the band of installers' usual jobs is tight in many cities: $23,145 to $37,523 in Cape Coral, $14,000 to $22,140 in Pittsburgh. A quote far outside your city's band is worth a line-by-line question: is there a battery in it, a main-panel upgrade, a reroof first?
The federal credit is gone for 2026 installs
The IRS's page on the Residential Clean Energy Credit says it "equals 30% of the costs of new, qualified clean energy property for your home installed anytime from 2022 through December 31, 2025", and that "the credit is not available for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025" (IRS, last reviewed 4 July 2026). The credit had to be claimed for the year the system was installed, "not merely purchased". So a 2026 system pays the full price in the table. State, utility and local incentives are separate and change often; check your utility's site, and get any rebate promise in the contract.
The sales pitch to watch for
The FTC's solar alert describes the pattern: a salesperson at the door promising "free rooftop solar panels", claims that "a government program will cover the whole cost", "large upfront payments or deposits", and pressure to sign "on an electronic tablet" (FTC consumer alert, September 2024). Its advice is to get quotes from licensed installers and compare them. If you did sign at your home, the FTC's Cooling-Off Rule gives you until midnight of the third business day to cancel many door-to-door sales of $25 or more (FTC, updated December 2025). California also caps a home-improvement down payment at 10% of the contract or $1,000, whichever is less (CSLB).
Who installs, and how they finish
Solar is concentrated in a few firms per city. In New York City, 87 installers filed 19,067 permits; in Honolulu, 110 filed 16,068. That makes the finished share the most useful thing to compare: among Honolulu installers with 10 or more solar permits, the spread runs from 64.3% at the bottom tenth to 96.3% at the top tenth. In Chicago, 14 of 29 such installers finished fewer than 70% of their solar permits. An unfinished solar permit can mean the system was never inspected or switched on. Our solar installer guide has the licence each state requires, and solar lease vs buy covers the financing side.
See every Honolulu solar installer by finished share →
What these numbers cannot tell you
The filed value is the installer's figure on the permit, and installers differ in what they include: Minneapolis ($6,450) and Saint Paul ($5,000) are so far below the other cities that many filings there probably cover only part of the contract, so we left them out of the table. Elk Grove's usual solar filing ($9,234) sits below the band of its own installers' usual jobs ($15,000–$29,730), a sign of many small battery or add-on permits, so it is left out too. We do not have system size in kilowatts on most permits, so we cannot give a cost per watt. And a cost from 2023 and one from 2026 sit in the same three-year median.
How we know this
Solar permits are those each city files under a solar or photovoltaic work type or description, over its three-year window ending September 2026. The usual filed value is the median of permits that carry a value; the middle-half range uses installers with three or more solar permits; "reached final" is the share of permits a year or more old that the city closed with a final, and days to final is the median from issue to final. The tax credit, FTC and CSLB facts are quoted from the pages under Sources, read 21 October 2026.
Numbers come from City & County of Honolulu building permits (DPP); NYC Department of Buildings permits and DOB NOW filings on one- and two-family homes (NYC Open Data); Sacramento County building permits on single-family, duplex and townhouse homes in the unincorporated county (the County's Accela permit layer); City of Cape Coral building permits (the city's open permit table starts January 2025); City of Chicago building permits (Chicago Data Portal); City of Seattle (SDCI) building, trade and electrical permits on single-family and duplex homes (the city's open-data exports); Arlington County, VA building and trade permits; City of Pittsburgh permits (Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center), data through October 17, 2026. Nobody paid to be on this page and nobody can.
Questions
- How much does it cost to install solar panels on a house?
By the permit record, the usual home solar job was filed at $15,040 in Seattle, $17,784 in Chicago, $25,200 in Sacramento County, $27,500 in Honolulu, $30,378 in Cape Coral and $37,400 in New York City. A battery, a panel upgrade or a bigger array moves a job above its city's usual figure.
- Is there still a 30% federal tax credit for solar?
Not for systems installed now. The IRS says the Residential Clean Energy Credit equals 30% of the cost of qualifying property installed from 2022 through 31 December 2025, and is not available for property placed in service after that date. Anyone quoting it for a 2026 install is wrong, and that is a reason to re-read every other number in the quote.
- How long does the permitting process take for solar panel installation?
Usually one to four months. The usual solar permit reached its final inspection in 49 days in Cape Coral, 43 in Seattle, 57 in Chicago and 102 in Honolulu. The utility's permission to operate is a separate step after the city's final.
- Why are the Minneapolis and Saint Paul figures so low?
Those two cities' usual solar filings are $6,450 and $5,000, far below the others, which suggests many installers there file the electrical portion rather than the full contract. Use them for comparing installers within those cities, not for budgeting.
- Does solar panel installation add value to your home?
An owned system has, in the best study we found: Berkeley Lab's analysis of almost 22,000 home sales in eight states from 2002 to 2013 found buyers paid about $4 per watt, about $15,000 for a 3.6 kW system, with the premium shrinking as panels aged. Its 2017 California study found leased systems added nothing and took nothing away. Against that, the usual job here was filed at $25,200 in Sacramento County.
- How do I know if a solar installer finishes its jobs?
Look up its solar permits and count how many reached a final. Among Honolulu installers with 10 or more solar permits, the bottom tenth finished 64.3% or less; in Chicago, 14 of 29 such firms finished under 70%. Our compare pages show that figure for every installer.
Build your own list
Every firm with that kind of permit on record. Pick what you value. The list moves.
Related guides
- Hiring a solar installer: 5 red flags and 10 questions, checked against solar permits in 41 cities
- How to finance a roof, heat pump or solar: FHA, USDA, PACE and state loans compared
- What's a good completion rate for a contractor? The benchmarks from 12 trades and cities
- Electrical work cost in 2026: what electrical permits were filed at in 18 cities
For one city
- Residential Clean Energy Credit — IRS (last reviewed 2026-07-04; accessed 2026-10-21)
- Solar energy: rising popularity, and so are scams — FTC Consumer Alert (September 2024; accessed 2026-10-21)
- Buyer's Remorse: The FTC's Cooling-Off Rule May Help — FTC Consumer Advice (updated 2025-12-09; accessed 2026-10-21)
- How do I find the right licensed contractor? — CSLB (accessed 2026-10-21)
- Berkeley Lab Illuminates Price Premiums for U.S. Solar Home Sales — Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (2015-01-13; accessed 2026-10-22)
- Berkeley Lab Report Says Solar Homes with Leased Systems Sell for the Same as Non-Solar Homes — Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (2017-03-14; accessed 2026-10-22)