How long do building permits take in San Francisco's Hayes Valley neighborhood?

In the Hayes Valley neighborhood of San Francisco, of the 345 building permits filed from October 2025 through September 2026 that have been issued, half were issued within 0 days, down from 1 day a year earlier. Of the 307 permits filed from October 2023 through September 2024 that have reached final sign-off, half did so within 90 days of being issued, down from 124 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	345 issued	0	408 issued	1
Permit issued to final sign-off	October 2023 through September 2024	307 finished	90	314 finished	124

“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 98 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	6	3			1			0	too recent
2026-Q3	96	69	0	22	27	13	67	0	too recent
2026-Q2	91	84	0	21	42	50	124	0	too recent
2026-Q1	96	90	0	66	57	60	145	0	too recent
2025-Q4	110	102	0	54	63	71	187	0	too recent
2025-Q3	126	110	0	69	83	97	306	0	too recent
2025-Q2	107	99	0	64	73	84	330	0	too recent
2025-Q1	106	96	0	56	76	110	308	0	too recent
2024-Q4	109	103	1	28	89	125	252	0	too recent
2024-Q3	119	110	0	84	91	84	374	0	yes
2024-Q2	102	93	1	122	70	78	228	0	yes
2024-Q1	98	90	0	57	71	146	359	0	yes
2023-Q4	112	98	0	70	75	95	368	0	yes
2023-Q3	142	131	1	111	103	121	394	29	yes
2023-Q2	119	102	1	82	76	92	433	28	yes
2023-Q1	85	78	0	49	62	138	423	17	yes
2022-Q4	111	100	2	245	73	147	640	27	yes
2022-Q3	102	94	3	162	73	125	513	20	yes
2022-Q2	109	101	0	383	67	113	511	33	yes
2022-Q1	108	98	0	44	79	141	575	21	yes
2021-Q4	102	88	0	75	64	150	598	25	yes
2021-Q3	120	110	0	45	92	171	710	19	yes
2021-Q2	131	124	11	82	87	173	452	34	yes
2021-Q1	133	123	23	150	80	172	548	45	yes
2020-Q4	155	143	26	121	75	247	721	65	yes
2020-Q3	170	156	4	87	91	140	853	68	yes
2020-Q2	68	59	6	47	26	105	380	38	yes
2020-Q1	209	197	0	233	87	160	419	110	yes
2019-Q4	284	272	0	114	105	127	606	158	yes
2019-Q3	292	273	0	124	119	139	452	146	yes
2019-Q2	256	244	0	47	102	136	732	138	yes
2019-Q1	251	234	0	56	116	118	584	121	yes
2018-Q4	243	231	0	99	116	160	720	110	yes
2018-Q3	227	220	0	126	98	155	575	115	yes
2018-Q2	244	228	0	75	128	100	426	102	yes
2018-Q1	263	250	0	56	122	113	456	125	yes
2017-Q4	234	223	0	81	116	135	598	107	yes
2017-Q3	281	273	0	364	158	134	715	102	yes
2017-Q2	287	280	0	61	168	127	460	106	yes
2017-Q1	211	203	0	280	116	146	505	83	yes
2016-Q4	241	224	0	205	118	166	582	107	yes
2016-Q3	274	259	1	320	117	179	734	128	yes
2016-Q2	256	242	0	147	135	204	935	99	yes
2016-Q1	215	203	0	148	121	132	658	71	yes
2015-Q4	230	214	0	75	115	140	624	96	yes
2015-Q3	227	214	0	90	112	159	782	101	yes
2015-Q2	231	220	0	165	137	139	557	77	yes
2015-Q1	239	228	0	49	140	116	459	84	yes
2014-Q4	218	208	0	73	102	120	389	97	yes
2014-Q3	241	229	0	48	133	106	473	87	yes
2014-Q2	207	202	0	61	104	91	490	89	yes
2014-Q1	208	194	0	78	106	113	560	85	yes
2013-Q4	196	191	0	50	103	101	400	79	yes
2013-Q3	217	203	0	54	107	139	550	92	yes
2013-Q2	199	191	0	162	118	132	695	66	yes
2013-Q1	173	165	0	20	97	80	621	62	yes
2012-Q4	138	132	0	49	85	147	559	46	yes
2012-Q3	176	163	0	160	90	156	671	62	yes
2012-Q2	170	159	0	37	85	70	412	71	yes
2012-Q1	146	137	0	32	80	96	476	50	yes
2011-Q4	114	107	0	73	63	101	662	40	yes
2011-Q3	160	159	0	37	86	90	650	63	yes
2011-Q2	144	139	0	8	77	106	430	54	yes
2011-Q1	144	137	0	6	73	89	465	54	yes
2010-Q4	118	112	0	45	64	105	496	47	yes
2010-Q3	154	148	0	27	80	97	302	60	yes
2010-Q2	158	155	0	27	93	80	366	56	yes
2010-Q1	140	137	0	9	77	110	376	52	yes
2009-Q4	138	131	0	19	70	84	436	58	yes
2009-Q3	139	136	0	18	83	57	460	44	yes
2009-Q2	166	159	0	18	100	80	356	58	yes
2009-Q1	168	166	0	6	100	60	356	48	yes
2008-Q4	184	181	0	9	97	91	321	67	yes
2008-Q3	234	228	0	5	104	91	298	100	yes
2008-Q2	207	204	0	23	92	84	443	90	yes
2008-Q1	219	212	0	9	97	77	307	98	yes
2007-Q4	225	221	0	8	108	90	364	78	yes
2007-Q3	219	204	0	8	92	80	307	77	yes
2007-Q2	223	220	0	17	112	110	306	80	yes
2007-Q1	230	225	0	0	88	67	323	94	yes
2006-Q4	235	230	0	0	81	86	420	116	yes
2006-Q3	213	207	0	0	96	114	300	82	yes
2006-Q2	195	192	0	27	89	86	298	61	yes
2006-Q1	180	178	0	0	81	83	378	59	yes
2005-Q4	149	146	0	0	48	134	335	74	yes
2005-Q3	173	169	0	14	72	92	247	50	yes
2005-Q2	148	144	0	39	72	108	424	49	yes
2005-Q1	138	133	0	15	64	85	233	41	yes
2004-Q4	136	136	0	14	65	88	235	43	yes
2004-Q3	156	152	0	0	59	60	280	72	yes
2004-Q2	195	186	0	36	85	60	298	62	yes
2004-Q1	135	132	0	22	51	100	230	48	yes
2003-Q4	138	135	0	79	62	70	371	46	yes
2003-Q3	116	111	0	26	61	89	232	39	yes
2003-Q2	132	130	0	89	67	107	599	46	yes
2003-Q1	138	132	0	42	71	73	378	45	yes
2002-Q4	108	107	0	63	45	120	382	38	yes
2002-Q3	157	148	0	15	74	108	449	52	yes
2002-Q2	161	155	0	50	86	120	343	22	yes
2002-Q1	130	126	0	104	60	78	242	5	yes
2001-Q4	128	120	0	100	63	107	367	6	yes
2001-Q3	123	117	0	24	45	111	731	2	yes
2001-Q2	124	122	0	25	62	148	310	1	yes
2001-Q1	120	116	0	36	62	115	368	2	yes
2000-Q4	99	97	0	78	50	148	450	1	yes
2000-Q3	149	145	0	46	83	127	508	0	yes
2000-Q2	152	140	0	45	67	151	466	1	yes
2000-Q1	141	133	0	54	58	244	697	3	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

6,025 of the 18,070 building permits filed since 2000 (33%) 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. Citywide, 798 of 801,386 permits since 2000 (0%) name no neighborhood and count in the city's figures only. 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 Hayes Valley neighborhood

Shown apart, with their own page here: bathroom remodel (2,515 filed, 1,731 finished; contractors); kitchen remodel (2,377 filed, 1,703 finished; contractors); stairs (1,075 filed, 733 finished; contractors); deck (395 filed, 257 finished; contractors); roof deck (89 filed, 49 finished; contractors). Other types: 13,591 permits.

Nearby neighborhoods

Western Addition, Japantown, Castro/Upper Market; 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.