How long do bathroom remodel permits take in San Francisco's Castro/Upper Market neighborhood?

In the Castro/Upper Market neighborhood of San Francisco, of the 152 bathroom remodel permits filed from October 2025 through September 2026 that have been issued, half were issued within 0 days, the same as a year earlier. Of the 105 permits filed from October 2023 through September 2024 that have reached final sign-off, half did so within 177 days of being issued, up from 168 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	152 issued	0	165 issued	0
Permit issued to final sign-off	October 2023 through September 2024	105 finished	177	130 finished	168

“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	23	0	13	3			0	too recent
2026-Q2	48	42	0	55	16	86	126	0	too recent
2026-Q1	43	42	0	69	23	126	191	0	too recent
2025-Q4	47	45	1	257	22	124	300	0	too recent
2025-Q3	52	51	3	145	37	141	284	0	too recent
2025-Q2	36	36	0	94	25	127	259	0	too recent
2025-Q1	40	38	0	99	24	106	368	0	too recent
2024-Q4	40	40	2	157	29	174	371	0	too recent
2024-Q3	34	32	0	118	24	170	388	0	yes
2024-Q2	39	38	0	60	32	162	404	0	yes
2024-Q1	37	35	0	37	33	208	545	0	yes
2023-Q4	22	21	0	251	16	195	549	1	yes
2023-Q3	51	50	2	66	36	167	490	11	yes
2023-Q2	40	36	0	46	31	158	431	3	yes
2023-Q1	43	38	0	32	31	205	494	6	yes
2022-Q4	47	43	5	402	32	209	534	7	yes
2022-Q3	44	40	0	65	31	153	594	7	yes
2022-Q2	57	52	1	104	45	216	799	6	yes
2022-Q1	55	54	1	58	42	226	725	8	yes
2021-Q4	49	47	8	70	40	258	1,038	5	yes
2021-Q3	59	57	1	345	46	247	882	6	yes
2021-Q2	69	64	0	89	57	265	672	8	yes
2021-Q1	53	50	0	279	33	166	602	13	yes
2020-Q4	60	58	0	194	44	173	545	9	yes
2020-Q3	57	53	9	120	45	204	594	8	yes
2020-Q2	13	13	6	312	10	182	699	3	yes
2020-Q1	50	47	0	205	33	224	820	9	yes
2019-Q4	56	51	6	85	39	197	647	11	yes
2019-Q3	56	51	1	206	43	231	1,021	6	yes
2019-Q2	49	48	0	224	33	173	831	11	yes
2019-Q1	54	48	1	150	44	170	550	4	yes
2018-Q4	40	38	1	79	35	147	428	1	yes
2018-Q3	49	46	0	156	37	155	376	5	yes
2018-Q2	53	48	6	168	40	182	456	2	yes
2018-Q1	41	40	4	160	32	182	704	7	yes
2017-Q4	40	36	1	134	30	202	791	6	yes
2017-Q3	51	50	0	182	36	198	583	9	yes
2017-Q2	52	50	0	263	40	169	724	4	yes
2017-Q1	66	62	2	111	50	171	648	11	yes
2016-Q4	52	45	2	331	33	246	658	6	yes
2016-Q3	59	55	1	67	37	209	563	11	yes
2016-Q2	49	46	0	17	36	121	613	7	yes
2016-Q1	60	56	0	52	42	201	745	9	yes
2015-Q4	45	43	0	90	28	146	721	11	yes
2015-Q3	54	51	4	440	43	257	696	5	yes
2015-Q2	54	51	3	191	42	192	622	8	yes
2015-Q1	56	54	1	121	47	171	467	6	yes
2014-Q4	60	56	2	207	45	135	565	6	yes
2014-Q3	57	56	0	105	49	175	671	5	yes
2014-Q2	51	48	0	279	36	173	1,059	10	yes
2014-Q1	59	56	1	102	43	120	405	6	yes
2013-Q4	42	39	2	264	28	216	492	7	yes
2013-Q3	56	52	0	38	38	172	525	9	yes
2013-Q2	51	50	0	28	43	115	504	5	yes
2013-Q1	51	51	1	126	43	162	587	4	yes
2012-Q4	58	54	0	34	41	269	513	7	yes
2012-Q3	58	55	0	38	52	202	362	1	yes
2012-Q2	45	45	0	33	35	135	372	9	yes
2012-Q1	42	42	0	34	36	168	398	4	yes
2011-Q4	44	42	0	31	35	146	377	2	yes
2011-Q3	50	47	0	83	40	147	468	4	yes
2011-Q2	51	49	0	124	45	173	644	2	yes
2011-Q1	37	35	0	19	27	127	365	5	yes
2010-Q4	42	39	1	105	34	170	651	2	yes
2010-Q3	36	36	0	234	28	211	604	7	yes
2010-Q2	42	40	0	14	32	157	783	3	yes
2010-Q1	38	37	0	38	32	162	337	2	yes
2009-Q4	26	26	0	76	25	125	471	0	yes
2009-Q3	53	53	0	27	42	194	470	5	yes
2009-Q2	40	39	1	134	36	221	585	1	yes
2009-Q1	34	33	0	12	29	216	505	2	yes
2008-Q4	35	33	0	74	24	192	435	2	yes
2008-Q3	35	33	0	184	26	185	397	2	yes
2008-Q2	38	38	0	409	29	172	449	4	yes
2008-Q1	45	43	0	171	31	153	350	6	yes
2007-Q4	52	48	0	80	28	158	358	6	yes
2007-Q3	55	52	0	3	29	125	270	6	yes
2007-Q2	57	56	0	79	39	208	644	6	yes
2007-Q1	45	44	0	2	37	145	387	2	yes
2006-Q4	41	40	0	7	29	161	422	3	yes
2006-Q3	51	51	0	0	36	164	454	4	yes
2006-Q2	58	57	0	0	38	182	527	4	yes
2006-Q1	44	43	0	87	31	172	735	2	yes
2005-Q4	37	35	0	0	25	279	2,316	5	yes
2005-Q3	33	32	0	0	21	190	414	8	yes
2005-Q2	33	32	0	0	22	194	449	5	yes
2005-Q1	30	30	0	67	15	219	372	12	yes
2004-Q4	19	19	0	0	10	120	223	6	yes
2004-Q3	31	30	0	0	20	183	343	5	yes
2004-Q2	39	37	0	140	21	120	388	9	yes
2004-Q1	22	22	0	155	15	196	544	4	yes
2003-Q4	18	18	0	5	12	112	233	2	yes
2003-Q3	21	20	0	19	12	130	308	5	yes
2003-Q2	26	25	0	52	14	154	551	5	yes
2003-Q1	24	23	0	52	13	195	270	7	yes
2002-Q4	15	15	0	170	10	251	293	4	yes
2002-Q3	25	23	0	0	12	159	246	5	yes
2002-Q2	21	20	0	67	13	153	272	2	yes
2002-Q1	23	22	0	284	11	127	456	6	yes
2001-Q4	13	13	0	23	7	91	196	1	yes
2001-Q3	27	26	0	153	14	213	623	2	yes
2001-Q2	21	21	0	122	11	164	203	0	yes
2001-Q1	19	18	0	42	13	127	215	0	yes
2000-Q4	17	15	0	26	12	176	620	0	yes
2000-Q3	23	22	0	25	15	117	357	0	yes
2000-Q2	21	20	0	65	10	138	271	0	yes
2000-Q1	20	20	0	82	10	189	320	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

498 of the 4,510 bathroom remodel permits filed since 2000 (11%) 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 Castro/Upper Market neighborhood

Shown apart, with their own page here: bathroom remodel (4,510 filed, 3,216 finished; contractors); kitchen remodel (3,859 filed, 2,761 finished; contractors); stairs (2,478 filed, 1,664 finished; contractors); deck (1,649 filed, 1,111 finished; contractors); roof deck (322 filed, 187 finished; contractors). Other types: 22,946 permits. All permits in San Francisco's Castro/Upper Market neighborhood

Nearby neighborhoods

Haight Ashbury, Twin Peaks, Noe Valley; 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.