# Census Building Permits

The Census Building Permits Survey: housing units authorized by building permit in the calendar year, from the metro-area December year-to-date file.

## Source

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publisher | U.S. Census Bureau |
| Product | Building Permits Survey (annual housing units authorized) |
| Source | [https://www.census.gov/construction/bps/](https://www.census.gov/construction/bps/) |
| Category | Demographics |
| Period | 2025 calendar year |
| Refresh cadence | Annual (release expected in February) |
| Geographies | Metro and micro area, as published (already at metro grain). |
| Availability | Available |
| Cadastre key | `permits` |

## Licence and attribution

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Licence | Public domain (U.S. federal government work) |
| Terms | [https://www.census.gov/data/developers/about/terms-of-service.html](https://www.census.gov/data/developers/about/terms-of-service.html) |
| Register status | Production approved; licence open |
| Allowed uses | `evaluation`, `internal`, `public_display`, `derived_analytics`, `redistribution`, `bulk_export`, `public_geometry`, `api` |

This source requires no credit line beyond naming the publisher. Cite it as **U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey (annual housing units authorized)**.

## Measures

The key is the measure's identifier in Cadastre. A measure stored for the metro itself is read as stored; **Rule from counties** is how a metro is assembled from its counties where it is not (see [Methodology](https://getcadastre.com/docs/methodology)).

| Key | Label | Unit | Rule from counties |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `housing_permits` | Housing permits | housing units per year | sum over member counties |

## Known gaps and caveats

- Residential permits only: it is not a count of all construction or all development activity.

## See also

- [All datasets](https://getcadastre.com/docs/datasets)
- [Rights and attribution](https://getcadastre.com/docs/rights)
- [Data freshness](https://getcadastre.com/docs/freshness)