How long do building permits take in San Francisco's Nob Hill neighborhood?

In the Nob Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, of the 459 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 400 permits filed from October 2023 through September 2024 that have reached final sign-off, half did so within 112 days of being issued, down from 158 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	459 issued	0	482 issued	0
Permit issued to final sign-off	October 2023 through September 2024	400 finished	112	425 finished	158

“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			0			0	too recent
2026-Q3	108	89	0	25	16	8	68	0	too recent
2026-Q2	127	110	0	42	66	41	108	0	too recent
2026-Q1	135	127	0	72	72	54	151	0	too recent
2025-Q4	146	133	0	77	85	103	230	0	too recent
2025-Q3	145	138	1	74	93	87	230	0	too recent
2025-Q2	137	130	0	31	97	112	311	0	too recent
2025-Q1	107	104	0	74	70	85	276	0	too recent
2024-Q4	116	110	0	40	87	109	286	0	too recent
2024-Q3	119	113	0	62	87	119	359	0	yes
2024-Q2	153	146	0	39	117	113	391	0	yes
2024-Q1	146	135	0	89	110	104	395	0	yes
2023-Q4	122	113	0	154	86	126	434	0	yes
2023-Q3	142	127	0	130	98	125	528	27	yes
2023-Q2	172	151	1	121	122	140	518	28	yes
2023-Q1	140	130	2	70	102	166	585	27	yes
2022-Q4	171	140	3	248	103	216	734	38	yes
2022-Q3	129	119	0	113	98	151	537	23	yes
2022-Q2	137	122	0	102	96	142	508	27	yes
2022-Q1	162	152	0	60	122	146	526	28	yes
2021-Q4	124	119	0	140	92	142	482	24	yes
2021-Q3	115	104	1	226	78	164	550	24	yes
2021-Q2	161	155	0	72	115	163	499	40	yes
2021-Q1	155	143	19	127	115	184	445	33	yes
2020-Q4	162	145	24	281	103	199	817	42	yes
2020-Q3	214	190	3	114	100	190	480	95	yes
2020-Q2	101	85	5	57	35	107	274	55	yes
2020-Q1	284	249	0	13	101	186	415	160	yes
2019-Q4	351	335	0	77	157	196	548	171	yes
2019-Q3	296	285	0	63	126	145	783	148	yes
2019-Q2	246	223	0	60	101	128	672	123	yes
2019-Q1	280	264	0	35	119	155	680	139	yes
2018-Q4	258	238	0	75	106	138	656	132	yes
2018-Q3	320	303	0	94	140	146	493	156	yes
2018-Q2	300	285	0	94	125	126	521	159	yes
2018-Q1	315	286	0	40	138	126	480	152	yes
2017-Q4	309	290	0	80	113	196	903	160	yes
2017-Q3	405	367	0	347	192	168	575	166	yes
2017-Q2	299	285	0	90	148	140	672	130	yes
2017-Q1	232	220	0	84	102	155	495	109	yes
2016-Q4	271	251	0	120	113	140	391	127	yes
2016-Q3	303	279	0	152	137	161	483	131	yes
2016-Q2	284	270	0	74	143	134	469	116	yes
2016-Q1	222	202	0	84	115	131	441	81	yes
2015-Q4	276	271	0	101	117	168	677	141	yes
2015-Q3	274	259	0	45	130	134	625	135	yes
2015-Q2	261	250	0	39	135	117	407	108	yes
2015-Q1	263	255	0	62	129	116	378	116	yes
2014-Q4	255	244	0	81	133	133	572	102	yes
2014-Q3	282	269	0	71	145	127	573	122	yes
2014-Q2	254	239	0	29	134	104	610	102	yes
2014-Q1	236	227	0	37	132	109	358	89	yes
2013-Q4	241	232	0	34	134	98	390	93	yes
2013-Q3	232	220	0	22	122	88	326	90	yes
2013-Q2	270	253	0	17	141	110	367	106	yes
2013-Q1	194	187	0	31	117	104	404	68	yes
2012-Q4	202	190	0	21	93	134	609	92	yes
2012-Q3	260	249	0	37	134	147	419	111	yes
2012-Q2	235	224	0	19	117	91	348	97	yes
2012-Q1	186	181	0	32	93	159	730	77	yes
2011-Q4	192	181	0	56	95	80	374	79	yes
2011-Q3	245	235	0	15	139	112	374	85	yes
2011-Q2	204	199	0	12	96	88	322	90	yes
2011-Q1	189	182	0	23	110	77	389	68	yes
2010-Q4	174	163	0	10	77	100	307	76	yes
2010-Q3	195	180	0	14	89	114	360	88	yes
2010-Q2	200	193	0	8	91	82	304	98	yes
2010-Q1	174	161	0	39	85	126	425	68	yes
2009-Q4	180	170	0	39	91	63	295	76	yes
2009-Q3	172	166	0	7	88	86	305	62	yes
2009-Q2	202	193	0	57	106	92	470	78	yes
2009-Q1	181	175	0	7	75	91	364	86	yes
2008-Q4	212	204	0	5	91	105	305	82	yes
2008-Q3	242	233	0	3	95	104	340	115	yes
2008-Q2	261	237	0	8	75	139	456	116	yes
2008-Q1	233	226	0	5	86	105	268	101	yes
2007-Q4	308	299	0	6	105	136	457	141	yes
2007-Q3	298	289	0	1	103	101	366	139	yes
2007-Q2	273	268	0	13	97	132	277	113	yes
2007-Q1	254	241	0	2	94	122	592	96	yes
2006-Q4	241	230	0	1	92	115	414	83	yes
2006-Q3	215	214	0	1	69	96	413	100	yes
2006-Q2	208	205	0	0	66	116	348	95	yes
2006-Q1	198	198	0	6	75	86	322	79	yes
2005-Q4	219	216	0	26	73	84	351	90	yes
2005-Q3	215	208	0	0	75	117	335	93	yes
2005-Q2	199	194	0	14	79	97	356	82	yes
2005-Q1	204	197	0	24	96	106	536	72	yes
2004-Q4	190	186	0	12	81	127	363	71	yes
2004-Q3	201	198	0	0	57	93	495	97	yes
2004-Q2	186	184	0	60	86	108	568	68	yes
2004-Q1	178	176	0	38	81	110	338	65	yes
2003-Q4	151	148	0	47	59	111	358	65	yes
2003-Q3	165	155	0	102	69	168	677	62	yes
2003-Q2	194	186	0	136	86	113	400	62	yes
2003-Q1	160	151	0	174	69	112	475	51	yes
2002-Q4	143	135	0	101	52	124	520	51	yes
2002-Q3	158	152	0	49	72	126	642	44	yes
2002-Q2	170	164	0	84	78	137	956	33	yes
2002-Q1	155	149	0	48	65	164	552	19	yes
2001-Q4	116	113	0	42	54	148	556	5	yes
2001-Q3	135	130	0	71	54	96	310	2	yes
2001-Q2	175	172	0	36	82	136	447	2	yes
2001-Q1	151	148	0	62	70	144	539	2	yes
2000-Q4	148	140	0	56	65	153	570	2	yes
2000-Q3	188	181	0	36	83	119	675	1	yes
2000-Q2	183	175	0	74	90	122	587	1	yes
2000-Q1	175	163	0	40	65	152	573	1	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

7,775 of the 21,958 building permits filed since 2000 (35%) 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 Nob Hill neighborhood

Shown apart, with their own page here: kitchen remodel (3,967 filed, 2,708 finished; contractors); bathroom remodel (3,903 filed, 2,669 finished; contractors); stairs (623 filed, 413 finished; contractors); deck (165 filed, 107 finished; contractors); roof deck (134 filed, 76 finished; contractors). Other types: 16,235 permits.

Nearby neighborhoods

Tenderloin, Chinatown, Russian Hill; 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.