How long do building permits take in San Francisco's Mission Bay neighborhood?

In the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, of the 205 building permits filed from October 2025 through September 2026 that have been issued, half were issued within 9 days, up from 6 days a year earlier. Of the 166 permits filed from October 2023 through September 2024 that have reached final sign-off, half did so within 139 days of being issued, up from 132 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	205 issued	9	284 issued	6
Permit issued to final sign-off	October 2023 through September 2024	166 finished	139	152 finished	132

“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	4	2			0			0	too recent
2026-Q3	43	29	4	36	5	41	70	0	too recent
2026-Q2	47	40	12	76	12	38	64	0	too recent
2026-Q1	61	55	7	90	24	76	150	0	too recent
2025-Q4	90	81	14	183	40	115	266	0	too recent
2025-Q3	79	76	4	56	55	134	323	0	too recent
2025-Q2	84	78	12	121	49	111	358	0	too recent
2025-Q1	64	63	5	76	41	131	435	0	too recent
2024-Q4	73	67	4	94	47	104	318	0	too recent
2024-Q3	79	75	14	69	63	116	263	0	yes
2024-Q2	36	31	19	113	30	163	381	0	yes
2024-Q1	58	47	5	120	33	119	375	0	yes
2023-Q4	69	48	0	239	40	134	334	1	yes
2023-Q3	66	59	5	92	43	131	465	17	yes
2023-Q2	61	54	14	116	41	166	398	14	yes
2023-Q1	48	43	0	195	32	126	675	8	yes
2022-Q4	59	50	11	124	36	133	798	16	yes
2022-Q3	79	68	6	126	49	131	524	27	yes
2022-Q2	87	73	2	80	56	130	726	21	yes
2022-Q1	68	65	7	73	51	146	390	14	yes
2021-Q4	83	75	1	42	64	121	499	17	yes
2021-Q3	114	104	0	72	85	167	485	23	yes
2021-Q2	81	73	31	122	64	142	320	10	yes
2021-Q1	93	83	34	220	63	176	760	25	yes
2020-Q4	114	105	47	238	80	135	515	26	yes
2020-Q3	134	117	43	157	89	204	540	30	yes
2020-Q2	37	37	66	184	28	156	603	9	yes
2020-Q1	139	133	0	207	76	234	434	59	yes
2019-Q4	196	182	2	121	119	267	708	65	yes
2019-Q3	248	230	4	100	140	214	682	88	yes
2019-Q2	194	184	2	112	116	256	825	69	yes
2019-Q1	180	167	3	71	108	133	738	58	yes
2018-Q4	164	159	1	75	91	126	892	66	yes
2018-Q3	166	158	2	88	107	158	892	51	yes
2018-Q2	135	122	1	193	73	148	946	49	yes
2018-Q1	128	123	3	61	63	180	820	61	yes
2017-Q4	125	122	0	79	70	160	942	51	yes
2017-Q3	104	102	1	78	67	169	840	36	yes
2017-Q2	122	113	0	63	66	151	795	46	yes
2017-Q1	112	107	0	64	77	111	455	30	yes
2016-Q4	123	116	0	66	86	108	936	29	yes
2016-Q3	105	100	6	101	62	152	860	38	yes
2016-Q2	120	113	3	167	73	152	1,200	42	yes
2016-Q1	128	121	0	56	82	118	457	39	yes
2015-Q4	145	134	1	60	85	137	1,113	50	yes
2015-Q3	100	96	3	128	67	126	923	29	yes
2015-Q2	127	118	4	80	74	231	565	46	yes
2015-Q1	94	90	0	33	60	176	795	29	yes
2014-Q4	96	92	3	113	58	210	1,155	34	yes
2014-Q3	121	112	2	71	83	112	657	28	yes
2014-Q2	119	109	1	72	84	100	454	25	yes
2014-Q1	88	87	4	126	61	103	615	23	yes
2013-Q4	95	92	6	107	70	144	763	22	yes
2013-Q3	88	84	4	108	61	183	822	23	yes
2013-Q2	68	65	5	114	47	141	1,011	16	yes
2013-Q1	86	81	2	21	59	98	613	21	yes
2012-Q4	61	59	1	58	40	101	852	17	yes
2012-Q3	64	60	0	57	39	114	802	20	yes
2012-Q2	79	77	1	43	53	113	813	23	yes
2012-Q1	79	78	0	34	49	74	939	22	yes
2011-Q4	57	55	2	70	37	140	1,314	18	yes
2011-Q3	89	86	0	80	66	90	578	21	yes
2011-Q2	50	47	0	16	39	66	330	5	yes
2011-Q1	69	67	0	13	57	84	618	10	yes
2010-Q4	86	81	1	51	53	105	208	27	yes
2010-Q3	55	51	3	34	42	82	749	6	yes
2010-Q2	73	68	3	93	47	97	208	15	yes
2010-Q1	64	60	0	69	46	102	342	10	yes
2009-Q4	62	61	1	11	56	34	209	3	yes
2009-Q3	53	53	1	41	42	85	316	10	yes
2009-Q2	68	64	0	36	53	106	238	9	yes
2009-Q1	76	67	0	39	44	84	341	23	yes
2008-Q4	82	79	0	19	65	115	333	13	yes
2008-Q3	84	82	0	63	54	113	448	18	yes
2008-Q2	116	111	0	23	80	124	345	27	yes
2008-Q1	84	82	0	32	50	109	523	16	yes
2007-Q4	69	68	1	69	32	206	620	22	yes
2007-Q3	95	92	0	22	54	90	465	27	yes
2007-Q2	72	72	0	58	38	119	279	23	yes
2007-Q1	80	79	0	106	41	196	460	18	yes
2006-Q4	110	108	0	44	59	193	359	19	yes
2006-Q3	123	121	0	144	49	182	746	32	yes
2006-Q2	103	95	0	107	43	202	523	21	yes
2006-Q1	79	76	0	47	32	274	781	18	yes
2005-Q4	75	72	0	57	37	68	986	19	yes
2005-Q3	127	126	0	40	98	87	369	18	yes
2005-Q2	141	140	0	40	89	106	631	31	yes
2005-Q1	74	73	0	76	41	96	647	16	yes
2004-Q4	75	73	0	97	50	108	775	10	yes
2004-Q3	107	101	0	66	67	145	415	19	yes
2004-Q2	58	57	0	47	34	152	322	11	yes
2004-Q1	62	61	0	77	39	128	497	8	yes
2003-Q4	47	45	0	177	26	106	496	8	yes
2003-Q3	61	56	0	102	42	116	308	5	yes
2003-Q2	66	65	0	98	40	87	406	10	yes
2003-Q1	94	94	0	44	56	58	300	24	yes
2002-Q4	50	46	0	74	31	178	398	3	yes
2002-Q3	76	75	0	64	53	91	704	12	yes
2002-Q2	67	65	0	50	42	162	343	3	yes
2002-Q1	50	47	0	140	23	308	767	1	yes
2001-Q4	58	55	2	62	27	154	354	5	yes
2001-Q3	56	49	4	95	25	255	519	2	yes
2001-Q2	73	71	13	147	29	237	721	4	yes
2001-Q1	62	54	0	112	26	184	704	1	yes
2000-Q4	74	70	10	80	36	188	1,567	3	yes
2000-Q3	75	73	4	123	27	316	847	3	yes
2000-Q2	86	74	30	101	45	350	2,144	3	yes
2000-Q1	55	50	0	128	9	571	1,751	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

2,194 of the 9,578 building permits filed since 2000 (23%) 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 Mission Bay neighborhood

Shown apart, with their own page here: bathroom remodel (504 filed, 382 finished; contractors); kitchen remodel (469 filed, 353 finished; contractors); stairs (168 filed, 125 finished; contractors). Other types: 8,702 permits.

Nearby neighborhoods

South of Market, Potrero Hill, Financial District/South Beach; 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.