How much does house demolition cost in New York City? The usual demolition job filed with New York City is $25,000, from 1,700 priced permits (October 2023 through September 2026); the middle half of firms file between $12,500 and $35,000. A filed value is what the contractor wrote on the permit, not a quote or the final bill. The file does not say which New York City demolition permits were whole-house teardowns and which were garages, sheds or partial demolition, so every figure here covers all of them.
The usual New York City demolition permit is filed at $25,000, from 1,700 priced permits, October 2023 through September 2026. Half were filed for less, half for more. The file does not separate whole-house teardowns from garages, sheds or partial demolition, so read it as the middle of all demolition jobs, not a house-only price. A filed value is what the contractor wrote on the permit, not a quote or the final bill. A demolition permit here usually takes 32 days from issue to final inspection. How long permits take →
Approximately, from each firm's own spread: every firm's range of filed values, weighted by its 1,700 priced permits across 348 firms, pooled into one. Half of New York City demolition permits were filed between $10,300 and $45,500.
| Percentile | Filed value | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $5,000 | 1 in 10 permits filed below |
| 25th | $10,300 | 1 in 4 filed below |
| 50th | $23,400 | the middle permit |
| 75th | $45,500 | 1 in 4 filed above |
| 90th | $68,600 | 1 in 10 filed above |
Firms split into thirds by the usual value of the homes they work on, with each third's usual filed value weighted by permits. Home values: NYC Department of Finance market values.
| Firms working on | Usual home value | Usual filed value | Firms | Permits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower third | under $650,000 | $35,400 | 96 | 619 |
| Middle third | $650,000–$1,009,000 | $22,500 | 97 | 559 |
| Upper third | $1,014,000 and up | $15,000 | 97 | 448 |
Top 10 by permits in the last 12 months. Usual is each firm's middle filed value; middle half is the range its middle half of jobs were filed in. Busy is not the same as careful: pick what you value to build a list.
| Firm | Permits | Last 12 mo | Usual | Middle half | Finished |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sken Services Corp | 182 | 80 | $50,000 | $15,000–$50,000 | 99.9% |
| N Tech Design of America | 71 | 42 | $30,000 | $15,000–$50,000 | 99.5% |
| Stream Rock Contsruction | 34 | 29 | $15,000 | $5,000–$45,000 | 3 of 6 |
| Golden Time Contracting I | 37 | 18 | $3,000 | $1,500–$45,000 | 95.7% |
| L&L Construction Develop | 37 | 16 | $15,000 | $5,000–$40,000 | 92.3% |
| Perciballi Industries Inc | 37 | 13 | $22,500 | $18,500–$28,750 | 99.4% |
| Zefi & Co. LLC | 22 | 13 | $27,500 | $10,000–$35,000 | 9 of 9 |
| Crowbar Industries Inc | 13 | 13 | $15,000 | $10,000–$30,000 | — |
| Bethel Building Corp | 24 | 12 | $18,000 | $10,000–$25,000 | 99.3% |
| Granite Environment, LLC | 30 | 10 | $301,254 | $191,527–$367,150 | 99.3% |
Line your quote up against the file. In New York City, 1 in 10 demolition filed values sit under $5,000, the middle half between $10,300 and $45,500, and 1 in 10 over $68,600.
New York City files the fewest demolition permits in January (77 against an average month of 100) and the most in September (123). If you can choose, ask for quotes in a quiet month. We have no prices by month, so this is about crews' schedules, not a discount. When each trade is busiest in New York City →
Source: NYC Department of Buildings permits and DOB NOW filings on one- and two-family homes (NYC Open Data). The window is October 2023 through September 2026; a permit filed after that isn't here yet.
Usual is the middle permit: half were filed for less, half for more. Only permits with a filed value count; a value of $0 or none is left out.
The spread is approximate: we keep seven points of each firm's own range of filed values, not every permit, and pool them.
Nobody paid to be on this page and nobody can. How the records work in New York City →
Demolition cost in other cities: Nashville Cleveland Pittsburgh Miami Minneapolis Denver Honolulu Greensboro Cambridge Cary Cape Coral Palo Alto Columbus, OH Sacramento County (unincorporated)
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