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

In the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco, of the 89 stairs permits filed from October 2025 through September 2026 that have been issued, half were issued within 3 days, down from 5 days a year earlier. Of the 43 permits filed from October 2023 through September 2024 that have reached final sign-off, half did so within 126 days of being issued, up from 111 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	89 issued	3	74 issued	5
Permit issued to final sign-off	October 2023 through September 2024	43 finished	126	74 finished	111

“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 7 days to issue and 175 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	1	0			0			0	too recent
2026-Q3	32	18	0	40	8	20	43	0	too recent
2026-Q2	23	20	0	29	14	46	81	0	too recent
2026-Q1	26	21	53	98	3			0	too recent
2025-Q4	38	30	12	171	15	42	156	0	too recent
2025-Q3	19	17	16	80	12	232	339	0	too recent
2025-Q2	26	24	2	182	13	129	356	0	too recent
2025-Q1	17	16	1	70	13	50	327	0	too recent
2024-Q4	18	17	9	167	15	97	148	0	too recent
2024-Q3	18	16	0	92	13	91	377	0	yes
2024-Q2	24	22	2	255	14	130	392	0	yes
2024-Q1	15	14	4	124	10	125	394	0	yes
2023-Q4	10	8	2	106	6	112	162	0	yes
2023-Q3	30	27	0	128	21	55	377	6	yes
2023-Q2	22	19	4	82	17	168	464	3	yes
2023-Q1	26	22	0	20	20	102	273	2	yes
2022-Q4	23	20	10	275	16	178	669	2	yes
2022-Q3	22	17	22	421	13	70	489	4	yes
2022-Q2	30	25	6	149	20	52	312	3	yes
2022-Q1	26	21	8	369	18	197	668	4	yes
2021-Q4	17	14	5	415	13	84	322	1	yes
2021-Q3	24	20	32	165	18	270	628	3	yes
2021-Q2	19	17	3	163	14	197	619	4	yes
2021-Q1	12	12	18	248	10	138	718	2	yes
2020-Q4	25	21	198	368	17	386	660	3	yes
2020-Q3	34	30	105	408	27	228	583	5	yes
2020-Q2	10	8	57	608	7	322	996	0	yes
2020-Q1	20	16	10	270	12	58	589	3	yes
2019-Q4	23	20	10	106	16	248	534	2	yes
2019-Q3	20	17	7	145	14	324	994	4	yes
2019-Q2	33	31	8	119	27	231	556	4	yes
2019-Q1	27	25	21	469	17	68	533	6	yes
2018-Q4	33	30	14	169	22	440	851	3	yes
2018-Q3	33	31	6	154	25	173	746	5	yes
2018-Q2	26	22	8	144	17	125	673	4	yes
2018-Q1	40	34	4	180	27	194	890	7	yes
2017-Q4	26	24	6	107	20	290	776	3	yes
2017-Q3	44	42	16	313	34	199	764	5	yes
2017-Q2	38	35	3	114	31	164	1,300	3	yes
2017-Q1	20	18	2	55	14	41	831	2	yes
2016-Q4	23	21	1	199	18	56	414	1	yes
2016-Q3	37	31	0	197	26	159	510	4	yes
2016-Q2	39	36	5	168	26	110	796	9	yes
2016-Q1	37	36	3	137	26	186	686	6	yes
2015-Q4	46	44	2	106	36	117	478	5	yes
2015-Q3	53	50	2	302	44	210	577	5	yes
2015-Q2	38	35	1	366	31	98	516	4	yes
2015-Q1	44	40	14	546	38	240	847	2	yes
2014-Q4	31	30	12	170	24	178	634	5	yes
2014-Q3	32	28	6	319	24	221	700	0	yes
2014-Q2	41	39	6	313	33	196	674	4	yes
2014-Q1	40	40	4	419	38	135	516	1	yes
2013-Q4	41	36	5	250	33	134	641	3	yes
2013-Q3	50	47	1	78	41	146	713	4	yes
2013-Q2	34	30	2	217	24	192	572	5	yes
2013-Q1	37	36	6	264	31	105	479	4	yes
2012-Q4	30	29	1	162	23	152	486	5	yes
2012-Q3	46	45	3	81	34	152	374	10	yes
2012-Q2	38	35	4	331	31	121	448	3	yes
2012-Q1	31	30	16	256	25	215	1,068	2	yes
2011-Q4	31	29	3	153	23	128	386	4	yes
2011-Q3	40	37	0	45	31	216	663	2	yes
2011-Q2	47	45	0	169	40	92	304	4	yes
2011-Q1	36	33	0	34	29	76	294	3	yes
2010-Q4	42	41	0	84	33	45	349	5	yes
2010-Q3	45	42	0	7	32	142	392	9	yes
2010-Q2	40	37	1	37	32	100	417	3	yes
2010-Q1	35	33	1	31	24	88	509	4	yes
2009-Q4	41	38	0	182	28	137	550	5	yes
2009-Q3	31	31	1	115	23	86	412	4	yes
2009-Q2	29	25	1	83	21	194	374	3	yes
2009-Q1	30	26	0	166	22	78	197	3	yes
2008-Q4	30	27	0	175	21	84	705	3	yes
2008-Q3	39	36	0	94	28	87	618	3	yes
2008-Q2	54	54	0	108	47	90	387	3	yes
2008-Q1	45	40	0	208	26	87	276	7	yes
2007-Q4	50	46	0	307	28	95	675	8	yes
2007-Q3	46	42	0	55	24	52	336	7	yes
2007-Q2	38	38	0	27	24	92	321	7	yes
2007-Q1	38	37	0	37	29	105	219	0	yes
2006-Q4	42	42	0	23	31	60	171	3	yes
2006-Q3	33	32	0	37	23	130	296	3	yes
2006-Q2	42	39	0	310	27	160	399	3	yes
2006-Q1	41	41	0	87	28	84	153	5	yes
2005-Q4	32	31	0	368	20	168	311	2	yes
2005-Q3	35	35	0	34	24	90	308	2	yes
2005-Q2	35	35	0	166	23	82	273	3	yes
2005-Q1	40	37	0	32	25	119	501	7	yes
2004-Q4	33	33	0	0	23	84	194	4	yes
2004-Q3	38	37	0	0	26	61	148	4	yes
2004-Q2	67	66	0	6	45	70	204	8	yes
2004-Q1	44	43	0	0	31	55	217	5	yes
2003-Q4	76	75	0	0	57	56	177	6	yes
2003-Q3	56	55	0	0	39	71	155	6	yes
2003-Q2	41	38	0	82	23	69	145	5	yes
2003-Q1	31	30	0	132	19	91	243	6	yes
2002-Q4	29	29	0	2	15	48	316	8	yes
2002-Q3	55	55	0	0	33	110	316	8	yes
2002-Q2	65	64	0	0	47	56	238	2	yes
2002-Q1	44	43	0	22	32	72	228	1	yes
2001-Q4	39	39	0	116	18	148	435	2	yes
2001-Q3	47	45	0	48	30	84	244	3	yes
2001-Q2	52	52	0	201	32	100	337	1	yes
2001-Q1	24	24	0	41	20	148	397	0	yes
2000-Q4	38	37	0	97	23	134	686	1	yes
2000-Q3	39	39	0	0	21	63	125	0	yes
2000-Q2	37	34	0	144	23	105	249	1	yes
2000-Q1	34	34	0	95	18	137	373	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

361 of the 3,714 stairs permits filed since 2000 (10%) 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 Mission neighborhood

Shown apart, with their own page here: bathroom remodel (5,544 filed, 3,781 finished; contractors); kitchen remodel (5,121 filed, 3,441 finished; contractors); stairs (3,714 filed, 2,590 finished; contractors); deck (1,135 filed, 786 finished; contractors); roof deck (332 filed, 202 finished; contractors). Other types: 41,115 permits. All permits in San Francisco's Mission neighborhood

Nearby neighborhoods

Castro/Upper Market, Noe Valley, Potrero 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.