Understanding Building Permit Activity at the State and Local Level
Purpose
The statewide building permit reporting system (SBPRS) is intended to inform state agencies and local governments where residential and nonresidential development is occurring, what is being built, the cost of the construction, the time required to construct projects, and much more. The information collected can improve infrastructure planning, enhance the effectiveness of state policies and programs, help identify best permitting practices of local governments, and target economic development efforts.
This dashboard is a summary of detailed building permit information submitted to MDP by the following participating jurisdictions:
Counties
-
Anne Arundel*
- Calvert
- Carroll
- Charles*
- Frederick*
- Harford*
- Howard*
- Montgomery*
- Prince George’s*
- St. Mary’s
- Worcester
Municipalities
While the goal of the SBPRS is to collect building permit data from all jurisdictions in Maryland, participation is voluntary for jurisdictions other than the nine most populous counties required under the Maryland Housing Data Transparency Act (HB1193(2025)), as indicated by the *. (More information about this legislation below.)
It is important to note the SBPRS building permit data is not the same as the U.S. Census Bureau’s Building Permits Survey (BPS), which Maryland State Data and Analysis Center (SDAC) publishes monthly. The Census Bureau’s BPS data includes building permit information for privately-owned new residential construction for the state, counties, and permit-issuing places and includes the number of buildings, number of units, and estimated value by residential structure type. While not reported on SBRRS dashboard, the SBPRS collects building permit data on all types of construction activity at the property level, while the BPS data is reported on new residential development only at the jurisdiction level. The BPS data only reports new residential development at the jurisdiction level and includes building permit data from all counties and some municipalities, enabling longitudinal data analysis over decades. The SBPRS started collecting data in 2025 from participating jurisdictions; however, the collection of the SBPRS detailed data over time will support targeted small area or regional construction analysis.
View SBPRS Dashboard
How to use the Dashboard
Pages:
The dashboard has six pages shown at the bottom of the dashboard. Click > to go to the next, and click < to go to the previous page. The data displayed on each page depends on your filter selections, which carry over when you switch pages. When you change pages and do not change the filter, the information displayed is based on the prior filter settings. The box in the lower left on each page provides an “Explanation of Data Shown”.
- Page 1: All building permits regardless of the type of construction activity, filterable by year and reporting jurisdiction.
- Page 2: All building permits separated into new construction vs permits for additions, alterations and renovations (AAR), referred to as Permit Types, filterable by permit type, the year and the reporting jurisdiction.
- Page 3: All building permits separated into residential and nonresidential construction activity, referred to as Permit Class, filterable by permit class, the year and the reporting jurisdiction.
- Page 4: All residential permits filterable by year, jurisdiction, and building permit type (New vs Additions/Alterations/Renovation (AAR) construction activity).
- Page 5: All nonresidential permits filterable by year, jurisdiction, and building permit type (New vs Additions/Alterations/Renovation (AAR) construction activity.
- Page 6: All New Residential building permits, filterable by year, jurisdiction, and type of residential structure (i.e. Single-family Detached (SFD), Single-Family Attached (SFA), Multifamily (MF), and Mobile Home (MH))
Filters:
The filters are in the upper left part of each page. When you click on the filter down button, you can select one or more of the listed items. To select multiple items, hold the control key and click on the desired items. Depending on the page, you can filter for:
- The year the permit is issued
- The jurisdiction reporting the permit activity
- Residential or Nonresidential Permits or Both (Permits are group into two classes, residential or nonresidential)
- New or Addition/Alteration/Renovation Permits or Both (There are two types of permits. New construction, which typically means no prior improvements were on the property. Addition/Alternation/Renovation (AAR) includes replacement dwellings or any alteration to an existing structure. MDP’s screening process reviews permit description to determine if construction involves demolition and replacement, and codes permit as AAR.)
- The Type of New Housing Unit (This filter only appears on Page 6 and only reports on new residential housing unit permits. The housing unit structure is classified as Single-Family Detached (SFD) [duplexes are also grouped under SFD], Single-Family Attached (SFA) [includes townhouses, triplex and quadplex], Multifamily (MF) [includes both condo and rental multifamily units], and Mobil Homes (MH).
Cumulative Total Reporting Boxes (Left Side)
Based on the filter, the “Number of Permits” and the “Construction Cost” boxes reflect the cumulative totals.
“Number of Permits” reflects the total number of permits issued. This does not necessarily relate to the number of units. Some jurisdictions may issue one permit for several multifamily units. Sometimes multiple permits are issued for one site depending on the construction activities.
“Construction Costs” reflects the total estimated cost of construction reported by the applicant for all permits based on the filters. Construction costs are supposed to be reported for each building permit issued, per §5–103 of the Tax-Property Article; however, some jurisdictions do not report estimated costs of construction for all permits.
Summary Yearly Totals (Upper Right Box)
This
box reports yearly totals and the breakdown of some associated permit details (# and percentage) are based on the selected filters.
Summary Monthly Total - Bar Chart (Lower Right Box)
This box displays a bar chart of monthly permit activity based on the filters. If you click on a particular month, the upper right Summary Total box will display more details about that month’s permit activity.
Data Limitations
The accuracy of the information on the dashboard is not guaranteed; it may contain errors and incomplete data reporting. MDP does not validate the accuracy of the information submitted by the participating jurisdictions and does not alter the raw data. Note that this dashboard reports on unaudited data from the local government, which may be updated subsequently by revisions to individual permits, and the results may vary from the official published information by the local government. Questions on individual permit records should be directed to the office or agency that originally issued the permit. (See Local Permit Agency Contacts for those inquiries.)
Title 12, §12–505, of the Public Safety Article requires that each local jurisdiction shall enforce the current version of the Maryland Building Performance Standards. At a minimum, the local jurisdiction shall implement these standards by reviewing plans, issuing building permits, inspecting the work, and issuing use/occupancy certificates. How local jurisdictions fulfill this responsibility varies among counties and municipalities across the state. Given that each jurisdiction uses its own building permit reporting system and set of standards for collecting building permit applicant data, MDP categorizes each jurisdiction’s permit classifications into a generalized building permit data structure to enable data comparison and tabulations. Without this generalization, statewide or multi-jurisdictional building permit data analysis is not possible. Furthermore, since each jurisdiction may only have a handful of certain construction projects in any given year, the SBPRS enables the compilation of sufficient data from participating jurisdictions to perform meaningful analysis of trends and policy inferences. (See Data Processing Methodology for more information.)
To the extent possible, building permit data has been collected as of January 1, 2025. Most jurisdictions submit the raw building permit data monthly, but some jurisdictions provide data quarterly or post the permit data to the jurisdiction’s online data portal for MDP to download. Given the scope of construction activity may change over the course of a project, the building permit data reported in the local permitting system may be updated. To the extent possible, MDP attempts to update the details of each individual permit based on the most recent data provided by the local government.
View SBPRS Dashboard
Type of Data Collected:
To the extent local building permit data is collected by the jurisdiction, the following building permit information may be reported to MDP:
- The permit number
- The description of work activity;
- The location of the permitted construction activity;
- When the permit was issued;
- When the permit was finalized or certificate of occupancy issued;
- The permit classification – residential or nonresidential;
- The permit type – new or addition, alternation, and renovation;
- The cost of construction;
- The square footage of the construction;
- For new residential projects;
- The type of housing unit;
- The number of units;
- The number of bedrooms;
- The number of bathrooms; and
- The type of water and sewer service.
View SBPRS Dashboard
Data Processing Methodology
Participating jurisdictions submit monthly or quarterly raw building permit data (in a .csv or .xlsx format) for inclusion into MDP’s SBPRS. The monthly submissions also typically include any revisions to previously issued building permits. In some cases, a jurisdiction has established a protocol to load its building permits to an online data portal, which MDP downloads, processes, and loads into MDP’s SBPRS. Building permit data from the online portal is typically updated daily. When MDP downloads a new version of a jurisdiction’s online building permit data, the older version is deleted.
MDP removes all personal information that may be reported by the local government through its intake processing of the raw data. MDP also consolidates any building permit revisions to have one permit record with the most accurate, up to date information about that permit. Raw building permit data not used to generalize the data to conform with MDP’s data dictionary data fields below are removed during the intake process. MDP uses a series of Lookup Tables and Data Processing Rules to interpret the local building permit data reporting process and have it aligned with MDP’s generalized data dictionary structure.
The following is a Data Dictionary of the SBPRS: The Green data fields indicate critical data fields that should be collected, if possible. The Blue data fields tend to be optional data fields that provide useful building information for analysis.
Data Dictionary
Data Dictionary of the SBPRS detailing generic names and general descriptions.
| Generic Name | General Description |
|---|
| permit_no | Local Building Permit number, format varies by jurisdiction |
| permit_issue_date | The date the building permit was initially issued |
| use&occupancy_date | The date the use and occupancy closing out the permit was issued. Final inspection may substitute for U&O or Certificate of Occupancy |
| tax_id | This is the SDAT Parcel Account Number. Some jurisdictions do not record the full 12-digit number and may include parts of the number excluding the county prefix |
| site_address | Street address associated with the building permit location. Some jurisdictions break this into subfields |
| desc_work | General description of the work associated with the building permit |
| permit_class | The building permit is classified as either Residential or Nonresidential. Depending on the jurisdiction a lookup table may be required to reclassify/interpret local permit information to fit into MDP’s classification of Residential or Nonresidential A determination of classification for Mixed-Use building permits may require further investigation and may have to fall into the Nonresidential Classification |
| permit_type | The building permit is classified either as Addition / Alteration / Renovation (AAR) or New Depending on the jurisdiction a lookup table may be required to regroup/interpret local permit information to fit into the permit types of AAR or New |
| permit_use (building use) | Building Use is based on a Modified BMC Building Coding (see Building Use Code table for more details) |
| job_cost (amount) | The cost of construction associated with the building permit |
| total_sf | Total square of building area associated with the building permit |
| county | This is an MDP assigned data field based on the reporting county. If the reporting permit agency is a municipality, the associated county is assigned to the permit. |
| permit_status | An optional data field, which jurisdiction may not collect. This usually indicates whether the building permit is pending, issued, expired or canceled. |
| municipality | This data field indicates if the building permit is issued to a municipality. If the county issues building permits for its municipalities, the specific municipality is reported for the permit. If the reporting permit agency is a municipality, MDP assigns the appropriate municipality code. |
| Type_of_Residence | Type of residence is based on the jurisdiction's data, typically it is single-family detached (SFD), Duplex, Triplex, Quad, Townhouse, Multifamily, or Mobile Home. For generalization purposes, duplex is grouped with SFD; Triplex, Quad, and townhouse are grouped under Single-family Attached (SFA), all multifamily (condo and rental) are grouped under Multifamily (MF). Accessory Apartments, if reported, are classified as MF. For HB1193 reporting counties, this is a mandatory field; for other jurisdictions this is optional. |
| unit_count | This is the number of new housing units associated with a new residential building permit. If no number is provided it is assumed that one unit per new residential building permit. For HB1193 reporting counties, this is a mandatory field; for other jurisdictions this is optional. |
| number_bedrooms | Number of bedrooms associated with new housing units. This is an optional field. |
| number_full_bath | Number of full baths associated with the new housing unit |
| number_half_bath | If tracked, number of half baths associated with new housing units |
| water_service | The types of water service of the new building permit, typically it is either public or private (well) |
| sewer_service | The types of sewer service of the new building permit, typically it is either public or private (septic) |
View SBPRS Dashboard
Local Permit Agency Contacts:
Counties
-
Anne Arundel
- Permit Agency: Department of Inspections and Permits
- Agency Contact: TBD
-
Calvert
- Permit Agency: Department of Planning & Zoning
- Agency Contact: TBD
-
Carroll
- Permit Agency: Department of Public Works, Permits & Inspections
- Agency Contact: TBD
-
Charles
- Permit Agency: Department of Planning and Growth Management
- Agency Contact: TBD
-
Frederick
- Permit Agency: Department of Planning & Permitting
- Agency Contact: TBD
-
Harford
- Permit Agency: Department of Inspections, Licenses & Permits
- Agency Contact: TBD
-
Howard
- Permit Agency: Department of Inspections, Licenses & Permits
- Agency Contact: TBD
Montgomery
- Permit Agency: Department of Permitting Services
- Agency Contact: TBD
-
Prince George’s
- Permit Agency: Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement
- Agency Contact: TBD
-
St. Mary’s
- Permit Agency: Department of Land Use and Growth Management
- Agency Contact: TBD
-
Worcester
- Permit Agency: Development Review & Permitting
- Agency Contact: TBD
Municipalities
-
Gaithersburg
- Permit Agency: Department of Planning & Code Administration
Agency Contact: TBD
Overview of the Maryland Housing Data Transparency Act (HB1193 - 2025)
The Maryland Housing Data Transparency Act (HB1193 - 2025) amended §7–105 of the Land Use Article to require counties with populations over 150,000 to report on residential building permits on a quarterly basis. There are nine counties mandated to report on residential building permit activity: Baltimore City and the counties of Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Charles, Frederick, Harford, Howard, Montgomery, and Prince George’s. The Act identifies specific permit data reporting requirements to be submitted to MDP.
MDP is required to publish a summary of the reported building permit activity by July 1, 2027 on a public, interactive and searchable website. MDP is also required to submit an annual report by December 31 of each year to the Governor and General Assembly on the reported building activity.
View SBPRS Dashboard
