How long do bathroom remodel permits take in San Francisco's Bernal Heights neighborhood?

In the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, of the 120 bathroom remodel permits filed from October 2025 through September 2026 that have been issued, half were issued within 2 days, the same as a year earlier. Of the 91 permits filed from October 2023 through September 2024 that have reached final sign-off, half did so within 171 days of being issued, down from 184 days the year before.

From the city’s permit records, by the quarter each permit was filed. Data as of 8 October 2026. How to cite this · How this is calculated

How long until a permit is issued, and until final sign-off?

This chart as an image (SVG), with its title, source and date, free to embed under CC BY 4.0.

At a glance

Stage	Permits filed	Permits counted	Median days	Counted a year earlier	Median a year earlier
Filed to permit issued	October 2025 through September 2026	120 issued	2	135 issued	2
Permit issued to final sign-off	October 2023 through September 2024	91 finished	171	83 finished	184

“Counted” is the permits the median was taken over: those filed in the window that have been issued, or that have reached final sign-off. The first stage covers the last four complete quarters, since most permits are issued within the year. The second covers the last four quarters that ended two or more years ago, so that most of their permits have had time to finish. Citywide, the median was 0 days to issue and 169 days from issue to final over the same quarters.

Every quarter since 2000

Quarter filed	Filed	Issued	Median days to issue	Slowest 10%	Reached final	Median days issue to final	Slowest 10%	Never finaled	Settled
2026-Q4	2	0			0			0	too recent
2026-Q3	30	16	0	22	2			0	too recent
2026-Q2	46	39	6	54	8	95	143	0	too recent
2026-Q1	39	31	1	145	12	126	180	0	too recent
2025-Q4	36	34	5	97	16	122	212	0	too recent
2025-Q3	40	40	1	83	25	134	299	0	too recent
2025-Q2	29	28	14	90	18	132	252	0	too recent
2025-Q1	45	43	0	110	30	160	294	0	too recent
2024-Q4	25	24	6	26	22	132	428	0	too recent
2024-Q3	35	33	1	39	25	217	487	0	yes
2024-Q2	32	30	7	215	25	172	434	0	yes
2024-Q1	26	23	0	29	19	116	509	0	yes
2023-Q4	30	29	0	64	22	121	476	1	yes
2023-Q3	30	26	0	64	18	210	559	7	yes
2023-Q2	29	25	16	297	19	238	609	5	yes
2023-Q1	25	25	1	133	21	208	510	1	yes
2022-Q4	39	37	1	447	25	90	320	3	yes
2022-Q3	36	34	0	105	25	298	570	6	yes
2022-Q2	27	24	6	375	17	168	597	6	yes
2022-Q1	46	45	1	342	38	185	689	8	yes
2021-Q4	39	38	4	180	29	246	569	7	yes
2021-Q3	41	38	0	227	33	194	623	4	yes
2021-Q2	48	43	0	200	35	275	666	5	yes
2021-Q1	57	52	50	522	39	264	676	10	yes
2020-Q4	51	41	41	171	33	184	607	7	yes
2020-Q3	44	41	1	144	34	234	692	7	yes
2020-Q2	18	14	6	66	14	180	546	0	yes
2020-Q1	33	29	5	315	24	154	687	5	yes
2019-Q4	49	44	12	383	31	400	861	11	yes
2019-Q3	53	51	10	577	32	250	702	17	yes
2019-Q2	57	53	10	595	43	312	753	8	yes
2019-Q1	48	45	1	58	38	208	836	5	yes
2018-Q4	52	49	6	275	38	240	1,001	6	yes
2018-Q3	48	46	1	236	38	208	946	6	yes
2018-Q2	47	40	3	105	38	260	678	0	yes
2018-Q1	42	39	3	285	29	236	988	8	yes
2017-Q4	47	44	7	352	42	326	895	0	yes
2017-Q3	41	37	1	65	34	246	609	3	yes
2017-Q2	66	59	1	337	46	176	666	9	yes
2017-Q1	44	42	2	280	34	237	460	5	yes
2016-Q4	58	56	19	313	48	248	571	5	yes
2016-Q3	52	49	1	418	42	298	675	6	yes
2016-Q2	54	53	6	103	42	304	661	5	yes
2016-Q1	43	39	2	97	34	169	469	4	yes
2015-Q4	48	46	8	262	37	281	550	6	yes
2015-Q3	40	40	1	174	34	118	463	5	yes
2015-Q2	59	56	3	234	53	176	344	2	yes
2015-Q1	38	38	0	64	35	181	406	3	yes
2014-Q4	51	48	8	599	37	378	1,152	9	yes
2014-Q3	50	46	4	170	34	203	515	9	yes
2014-Q2	43	42	4	243	30	209	1,131	8	yes
2014-Q1	46	45	3	117	39	240	571	6	yes
2013-Q4	48	46	5	83	38	211	526	7	yes
2013-Q3	31	29	3	37	25	190	499	1	yes
2013-Q2	48	47	7	321	39	355	721	5	yes
2013-Q1	37	36	1	108	32	110	337	1	yes
2012-Q4	36	36	1	116	33	137	588	3	yes
2012-Q3	43	42	2	120	36	180	468	6	yes
2012-Q2	35	35	0	205	28	139	412	4	yes
2012-Q1	34	34	3	73	30	153	428	2	yes
2011-Q4	28	27	3	312	24	178	685	1	yes
2011-Q3	28	26	2	64	22	144	242	3	yes
2011-Q2	25	23	0	123	19	119	519	3	yes
2011-Q1	25	22	1	7	20	132	286	2	yes
2010-Q4	43	40	4	100	37	206	501	1	yes
2010-Q3	45	42	1	64	35	212	576	4	yes
2010-Q2	33	32	2	94	29	215	476	2	yes
2010-Q1	29	28	1	20	24	200	534	0	yes
2009-Q4	37	35	2	193	26	222	566	3	yes
2009-Q3	29	29	4	101	25	214	365	2	yes
2009-Q2	36	34	0	113	28	154	375	1	yes
2009-Q1	19	19	1	42	17	146	462	1	yes
2008-Q4	30	27	0	16	19	133	279	2	yes
2008-Q3	33	31	1	92	25	239	426	0	yes
2008-Q2	33	32	1	345	23	266	415	1	yes
2008-Q1	24	22	0	172	18	141	440	0	yes
2007-Q4	43	39	0	274	23	191	391	5	yes
2007-Q3	38	37	0	4	20	152	300	7	yes
2007-Q2	22	20	0	3	12	128	308	2	yes
2007-Q1	34	33	0	74	19	140	283	2	yes
2006-Q4	32	31	0	0	19	127	380	3	yes
2006-Q3	32	30	0	138	16	119	236	1	yes
2006-Q2	27	27	0	162	15	183	382	2	yes
2006-Q1	33	33	0	108	24	214	372	2	yes
2005-Q4	31	30	0	476	16	200	332	5	yes
2005-Q3	29	29	0	264	17	140	231	7	yes
2005-Q2	22	19	0	571	12	198	608	2	yes
2005-Q1	20	20	0	0	11	105	210	0	yes
2004-Q4	25	24	0	0	16	153	448	2	yes
2004-Q3	23	23	0	111	17	111	283	2	yes
2004-Q2	23	22	0	385	15	128	454	1	yes
2004-Q1	19	19	0	142	9	111	289	1	yes
2003-Q4	19	18	0	70	13	210	374	2	yes
2003-Q3	23	22	0	23	16	180	472	2	yes
2003-Q2	22	22	0	159	10	200	385	1	yes
2003-Q1	21	18	0	212	10	174	494	2	yes
2002-Q4	13	12	0	0	9	124	334	1	yes
2002-Q3	27	27	0	120	16	270	468	1	yes
2002-Q2	20	19	0	174	13	281	1,563	0	yes
2002-Q1	17	16	10	191	7	140	244	2	yes
2001-Q4	14	12	0	223	6	217	349	0	yes
2001-Q3	13	12	0	276	8	186	306	0	yes
2001-Q2	24	22	0	231	11	230	332	0	yes
2001-Q1	19	19	0	359	10	73	172	0	yes
2000-Q4	13	11	0	13	6	153	193	0	yes
2000-Q3	13	13	0	139	7	183	475	0	yes
2000-Q2	12	11	0	112	8	256	497	0	yes
2000-Q1	10	9	0	99	7	245	726	0	yes

A blank median means fewer than 5 permits behind it: issued permits for the first stage, and for the second, finished permits whose final is dated after their issue (a permit never issued has no span). “Slowest 10%” is the 90th percentile: one permit in ten took at least this long. Download the table as CSV or JSON; both carry the source, license and data date.

What the numbers leave out

338 of the 3,696 bathroom remodel permits filed since 2000 (9%) have no final sign-off 3 years after they were issued or, if never issued, filed. A median over finished permits understates the real wait: the permits that never finish are not in it. Inspection records are not yet included: “final sign-off” is the city’s own completion date on the permit.

Project types in San Francisco's Bernal Heights neighborhood

Shown apart, with their own page here: bathroom remodel (3,696 filed, 2,606 finished; contractors); kitchen remodel (2,991 filed, 2,081 finished; contractors); stairs (2,249 filed, 1,508 finished; contractors); deck (1,270 filed, 821 finished; contractors); roof deck (214 filed, 133 finished; contractors). Other types: 17,957 permits. All permits in San Francisco's Bernal Heights neighborhood

Nearby neighborhoods

Glen Park, Noe Valley, Portola; all of San Francisco; every neighborhood compared.

How this is calculated

Approved means the city issued the permit: the permit’s issue date. The first stage counts days from the filing date to the issue date, over permits issued on or after they were filed. Final sign-off means the city’s own status for the permit is “complete”, with its completion date; this site does not yet read inspection records, so the inspection date is not a separate stage. The second stage counts days from the issue date to the completion date, over permits that have reached it.

Permits are grouped by the quarter they were filed. A quarter’s median counts only its permits that have finished the stage, so recent quarters look faster than they will end up: their slow permits have not finished yet. Quarters that ended two or more years ago are marked settled; the rest are shaded in the chart. The headline’s first stage uses the last four complete quarters; its second uses the last four settled quarters.

The median is the middle permit: half took less, half more. The slowest 10% is the 90th percentile. A median needs at least 5 permits behind it, or it is left out. A project type is shown apart within a neighborhood only when it has 30 or more finished permits there; the rest are “other types”.

Never finaled means no final sign-off three years after the permit was issued (or filed, if never issued), and not expired, cancelled, withdrawn, revoked, disapproved, denied or suspended (the site’s “expired or cancelled” outcome). About a quarter of permits citywide end this way; often the work was done and nobody called for the final inspection. These permits are in the counts and not in the medians.

A permit’s neighborhood is the Analysis Neighborhood the city writes on the permit record (the official set of 41). Permits with none are counted citywide only; the page says how many. “Nearby” neighborhoods are the three nearest by the center of their permits. The site reloads the city’s data every night; permits filed since 1 January 2000 are included. The placement of a permit, its dates and its status are the city’s; the grouping and the words are this site’s. How to read these records.