How long do building permits take in San Francisco's Inner Richmond neighborhood?

In the Inner Richmond neighborhood of San Francisco, of the 487 building 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 462 permits filed from October 2023 through September 2024 that have reached final sign-off, half did so within 84 days of being issued, down from 113 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	487 issued	0	558 issued	0
Permit issued to final sign-off	October 2023 through September 2024	462 finished	84	396 finished	113

“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	7	4			0			0	too recent
2026-Q3	99	76	0	30	13	16	75	0	too recent
2026-Q2	137	129	0	50	53	47	122	0	too recent
2026-Q1	144	131	0	41	73	57	159	0	too recent
2025-Q4	162	151	0	42	108	69	232	0	too recent
2025-Q3	151	143	0	51	96	77	258	0	too recent
2025-Q2	178	169	0	90	131	60	279	0	too recent
2025-Q1	129	123	0	29	95	50	253	0	too recent
2024-Q4	132	123	0	73	86	113	375	0	too recent
2024-Q3	159	145	0	50	113	69	340	0	yes
2024-Q2	201	192	0	69	148	70	348	0	yes
2024-Q1	142	131	0	66	104	108	378	0	yes
2023-Q4	139	129	0	105	97	91	449	2	yes
2023-Q3	149	141	0	106	104	106	431	31	yes
2023-Q2	163	156	0	35	109	127	590	36	yes
2023-Q1	134	124	0	45	98	124	608	20	yes
2022-Q4	137	120	0	126	85	114	573	31	yes
2022-Q3	139	132	0	182	95	125	552	27	yes
2022-Q2	138	129	0	50	99	154	659	29	yes
2022-Q1	144	136	0	80	116	240	675	17	yes
2021-Q4	104	97	0	164	76	171	776	19	yes
2021-Q3	117	104	0	108	79	182	663	28	yes
2021-Q2	118	113	1	122	91	187	664	21	yes
2021-Q1	120	110	33	208	82	136	633	26	yes
2020-Q4	150	135	28	196	106	153	622	29	yes
2020-Q3	161	140	4	144	92	206	1,142	57	yes
2020-Q2	58	46	5	34	28	91	266	24	yes
2020-Q1	146	129	0	153	78	259	628	50	yes
2019-Q4	238	216	0	150	121	209	686	99	yes
2019-Q3	249	245	0	85	141	133	685	101	yes
2019-Q2	265	245	0	51	119	137	684	126	yes
2019-Q1	202	189	0	32	111	114	492	80	yes
2018-Q4	228	214	0	129	106	132	710	101	yes
2018-Q3	261	251	0	43	127	137	665	121	yes
2018-Q2	262	249	0	65	130	164	723	115	yes
2018-Q1	214	203	0	87	107	129	433	92	yes
2017-Q4	212	202	0	77	111	96	547	89	yes
2017-Q3	305	287	0	442	176	184	900	108	yes
2017-Q2	229	220	0	229	121	196	658	94	yes
2017-Q1	185	176	0	102	95	146	696	77	yes
2016-Q4	173	164	0	115	86	122	734	75	yes
2016-Q3	227	216	0	238	130	186	541	82	yes
2016-Q2	205	193	0	91	105	116	497	85	yes
2016-Q1	177	169	0	75	105	141	471	56	yes
2015-Q4	185	182	0	94	94	144	424	82	yes
2015-Q3	214	207	0	28	111	107	475	89	yes
2015-Q2	212	202	0	48	128	141	362	61	yes
2015-Q1	187	179	0	59	124	114	544	49	yes
2014-Q4	162	157	0	73	103	163	571	49	yes
2014-Q3	207	201	0	29	106	174	554	85	yes
2014-Q2	198	191	0	30	104	118	423	82	yes
2014-Q1	178	172	0	34	97	140	621	70	yes
2013-Q4	155	153	0	34	95	85	370	50	yes
2013-Q3	161	158	0	24	88	84	462	65	yes
2013-Q2	158	150	0	27	97	102	512	50	yes
2013-Q1	138	134	0	16	62	83	423	65	yes
2012-Q4	142	136	0	10	79	94	367	52	yes
2012-Q3	185	182	0	69	111	99	356	66	yes
2012-Q2	164	157	0	13	85	89	332	71	yes
2012-Q1	127	117	0	6	67	56	242	50	yes
2011-Q4	146	145	0	39	76	88	500	64	yes
2011-Q3	187	182	0	22	103	102	473	79	yes
2011-Q2	148	146	0	20	84	62	253	56	yes
2011-Q1	149	144	0	8	89	56	357	55	yes
2010-Q4	160	153	0	42	87	98	357	63	yes
2010-Q3	172	165	0	12	91	76	386	67	yes
2010-Q2	185	180	0	13	100	68	413	77	yes
2010-Q1	125	120	0	21	68	112	408	51	yes
2009-Q4	132	125	0	46	63	74	442	57	yes
2009-Q3	172	165	0	7	95	99	520	63	yes
2009-Q2	158	149	0	8	73	99	658	73	yes
2009-Q1	158	149	0	12	82	102	427	57	yes
2008-Q4	175	170	0	5	89	81	340	72	yes
2008-Q3	219	216	0	3	112	71	334	91	yes
2008-Q2	232	225	0	10	102	85	323	108	yes
2008-Q1	229	222	0	3	89	98	300	121	yes
2007-Q4	276	274	0	7	105	98	366	149	yes
2007-Q3	216	212	0	5	103	92	299	96	yes
2007-Q2	192	188	0	3	92	98	351	74	yes
2007-Q1	197	191	0	0	93	86	258	78	yes
2006-Q4	205	201	0	0	83	111	268	87	yes
2006-Q3	226	221	0	0	100	80	329	87	yes
2006-Q2	219	215	0	0	108	106	334	80	yes
2006-Q1	127	122	0	0	69	91	282	35	yes
2005-Q4	160	159	0	37	78	142	311	45	yes
2005-Q3	195	193	0	0	91	105	349	56	yes
2005-Q2	170	167	0	39	92	88	300	33	yes
2005-Q1	178	177	0	30	100	105	269	45	yes
2004-Q4	181	171	0	14	90	78	279	44	yes
2004-Q3	188	185	0	0	89	109	362	44	yes
2004-Q2	164	163	0	63	80	66	269	46	yes
2004-Q1	155	152	0	5	65	99	388	48	yes
2003-Q4	163	159	0	22	70	92	258	46	yes
2003-Q3	211	201	0	0	65	55	283	84	yes
2003-Q2	223	214	0	0	100	72	177	69	yes
2003-Q1	159	158	0	0	85	83	237	27	yes
2002-Q4	128	124	0	178	65	81	331	24	yes
2002-Q3	160	148	0	0	78	102	254	39	yes
2002-Q2	181	176	0	45	110	96	303	12	yes
2002-Q1	152	148	0	62	82	98	299	3	yes
2001-Q4	128	121	0	33	73	91	231	2	yes
2001-Q3	113	108	0	138	59	134	340	5	yes
2001-Q2	161	158	0	31	89	101	311	0	yes
2001-Q1	120	115	0	129	68	100	325	5	yes
2000-Q4	138	133	0	58	78	160	450	2	yes
2000-Q3	174	170	0	131	96	118	490	2	yes
2000-Q2	165	160	0	47	84	115	577	0	yes
2000-Q1	158	153	0	117	80	162	461	2	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

5,507 of the 18,493 building permits filed since 2000 (30%) 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 Inner Richmond neighborhood

Shown apart, with their own page here: bathroom remodel (2,738 filed, 1,981 finished; contractors); kitchen remodel (2,379 filed, 1,729 finished; contractors); stairs (1,267 filed, 921 finished; contractors); deck (636 filed, 449 finished; contractors); roof deck (131 filed, 82 finished; contractors). Other types: 13,632 permits.

Nearby neighborhoods

Presidio Heights, Presidio, Golden Gate Park; 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.