Building permits by ZIP code in the City of Milwaukee

How these numbers are made

Source: City of Milwaukee Open Data, Residential and Commercial Permit Work Data (buildingpermits), read 18 Oct 2026. We count permits issued June 2024 through May 2026; denied and withdrawn permits are left out. The file carries no usable permit status, so it can't say which permits were finished, so no finished share is shown.

Residential and commercial alteration and new-construction permits the City of Milwaukee's Department of Neighborhood Services issues inside city limits, as the city publishes them. Electrical, plumbing, HVAC and other trade permits are not in this file, and neither are Wauwatosa, West Allis and the other Milwaukee County suburbs, which run their own permit offices.

• The city's file names no contractor, so there are no contractor lists, rankings or firm pages for Milwaukee.
• The city publishes only building alteration and new-construction permits, about 1,500 a year. Electrical, plumbing, HVAC, roofing and other trade permits are not in the file, so this is a slice of the city's permit work, not all of it.
• The file has no description, so home alterations cannot be split into trades; they are all counted as remodels and repairs.
• Every permit in the file is marked issued and there are no final dates, so we show no finished share and no time to final.
• The city's latest file runs to mid-June 2026, so the window ends in May 2026.
• The value is the construction cost on the permit; about four in ten permits list none.

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