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

In the Portola neighborhood of San Francisco, of the 209 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 213 permits filed from October 2023 through September 2024 that have reached final sign-off, half did so within 63 days of being issued, down from 98 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	209 issued	0	248 issued	0
Permit issued to final sign-off	October 2023 through September 2024	213 finished	63	192 finished	98

“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	1	0			0			0	too recent
2026-Q3	45	34	2	21	7	24	40	0	too recent
2026-Q2	66	57	0	9	30	39	113	0	too recent
2026-Q1	60	54	0	35	32	48	178	0	too recent
2025-Q4	68	64	0	38	42	40	203	0	too recent
2025-Q3	95	87	0	83	62	42	246	0	too recent
2025-Q2	62	55	0	30	46	82	309	0	too recent
2025-Q1	55	53	0	57	39	23	131	0	too recent
2024-Q4	55	53	0	36	46	42	314	0	too recent
2024-Q3	79	75	0	13	59	46	285	0	yes
2024-Q2	76	69	0	36	52	42	316	0	yes
2024-Q1	70	69	0	9	53	60	327	0	yes
2023-Q4	64	59	0	45	49	91	512	1	yes
2023-Q3	72	68	0	349	44	64	318	18	yes
2023-Q2	74	66	0	79	55	108	232	15	yes
2023-Q1	61	60	2	25	48	96	281	8	yes
2022-Q4	70	63	0	126	45	127	349	19	yes
2022-Q3	71	66	0	48	46	80	342	17	yes
2022-Q2	54	51	0	35	39	78	348	14	yes
2022-Q1	114	58	0	41	39	140	497	70	yes
2021-Q4	49	45	0	246	34	128	384	7	yes
2021-Q3	62	58	0	304	43	73	359	13	yes
2021-Q2	60	55	0	289	41	126	322	13	yes
2021-Q1	62	56	0	198	36	84	496	22	yes
2020-Q4	81	74	0	229	48	108	638	20	yes
2020-Q3	70	63	4	237	43	120	1,046	19	yes
2020-Q2	19	17	6	373	11	93	237	5	yes
2020-Q1	64	61	0	174	33	217	676	26	yes
2019-Q4	86	79	0	48	58	136	409	25	yes
2019-Q3	90	85	0	40	48	117	521	30	yes
2019-Q2	86	77	0	96	49	144	528	26	yes
2019-Q1	80	78	0	109	56	120	332	21	yes
2018-Q4	65	59	0	62	39	119	438	18	yes
2018-Q3	81	75	0	123	42	110	485	33	yes
2018-Q2	87	82	0	64	55	106	689	23	yes
2018-Q1	65	59	0	172	32	84	267	25	yes
2017-Q4	51	46	0	231	27	70	394	16	yes
2017-Q3	97	92	0	163	56	94	808	35	yes
2017-Q2	75	72	0	113	38	92	659	30	yes
2017-Q1	78	73	0	187	51	153	515	23	yes
2016-Q4	82	76	0	168	43	77	369	24	yes
2016-Q3	73	70	0	176	43	105	457	25	yes
2016-Q2	61	59	0	92	33	102	356	20	yes
2016-Q1	74	71	0	21	46	130	316	19	yes
2015-Q4	78	75	0	29	49	112	343	22	yes
2015-Q3	65	62	0	55	44	139	456	15	yes
2015-Q2	63	56	0	100	33	143	383	20	yes
2015-Q1	62	59	0	88	34	141	428	21	yes
2014-Q4	70	56	0	96	34	168	378	24	yes
2014-Q3	65	65	0	209	40	64	321	21	yes
2014-Q2	53	51	0	52	33	133	599	17	yes
2014-Q1	53	52	0	8	38	60	480	11	yes
2013-Q4	52	51	0	22	40	105	384	11	yes
2013-Q3	65	63	0	4	34	128	267	27	yes
2013-Q2	67	65	0	14	37	131	475	24	yes
2013-Q1	49	49	0	4	26	80	324	22	yes
2012-Q4	55	54	0	47	32	100	498	21	yes
2012-Q3	62	60	0	143	39	77	1,236	18	yes
2012-Q2	51	49	0	37	31	91	540	17	yes
2012-Q1	44	43	0	53	34	91	229	7	yes
2011-Q4	40	39	0	12	25	103	205	13	yes
2011-Q3	54	52	0	29	27	67	353	21	yes
2011-Q2	60	59	0	15	33	80	290	23	yes
2011-Q1	60	57	0	6	39	84	292	17	yes
2010-Q4	111	104	0	2,851	70	149	1,721	33	yes
2010-Q3	74	67	0	8	52	46	368	15	yes
2010-Q2	64	63	0	16	37	100	349	25	yes
2010-Q1	68	67	0	12	47	91	352	18	yes
2009-Q4	57	54	0	18	35	51	409	18	yes
2009-Q3	67	65	0	106	41	122	529	21	yes
2009-Q2	80	77	0	7	41	72	297	32	yes
2009-Q1	82	80	0	4	36	57	528	42	yes
2008-Q4	121	118	0	1	48	46	329	67	yes
2008-Q3	79	76	0	301	50	164	314	24	yes
2008-Q2	82	80	0	50	51	71	251	24	yes
2008-Q1	57	54	0	5	30	75	272	20	yes
2007-Q4	80	78	0	3	46	55	256	26	yes
2007-Q3	86	84	0	2	43	89	190	34	yes
2007-Q2	76	72	0	0	40	84	239	23	yes
2007-Q1	48	48	0	0	24	96	289	13	yes
2006-Q4	73	69	0	0	42	80	237	20	yes
2006-Q3	76	74	0	107	43	104	362	15	yes
2006-Q2	71	65	0	0	34	100	246	19	yes
2006-Q1	64	63	0	0	27	106	221	22	yes
2005-Q4	62	61	0	0	36	104	314	18	yes
2005-Q3	93	91	0	60	62	79	215	16	yes
2005-Q2	80	76	0	13	41	114	259	15	yes
2005-Q1	81	77	0	33	45	153	314	18	yes
2004-Q4	70	68	0	169	32	98	406	20	yes
2004-Q3	84	81	0	110	36	75	363	27	yes
2004-Q2	77	75	0	261	49	109	379	18	yes
2004-Q1	58	57	0	7	34	77	255	16	yes
2003-Q4	74	72	0	0	41	91	223	18	yes
2003-Q3	72	68	0	72	37	77	223	19	yes
2003-Q2	67	67	0	116	36	110	396	13	yes
2003-Q1	58	58	0	40	27	98	245	14	yes
2002-Q4	72	70	0	23	45	81	327	15	yes
2002-Q3	60	56	0	0	31	84	281	15	yes
2002-Q2	83	80	0	51	43	55	370	9	yes
2002-Q1	75	71	0	384	35	239	934	2	yes
2001-Q4	87	86	0	0	40	110	399	1	yes
2001-Q3	58	55	0	0	27	91	165	0	yes
2001-Q2	75	73	0	83	46	160	435	2	yes
2001-Q1	69	67	0	19	31	74	284	1	yes
2000-Q4	59	56	0	69	29	125	582	2	yes
2000-Q3	82	81	0	14	52	54	238	1	yes
2000-Q2	84	83	0	32	47	65	308	0	yes
2000-Q1	80	80	0	32	37	119	344	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

1,823 of the 7,454 building permits filed since 2000 (24%) 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 Portola neighborhood

Shown apart, with their own page here: bathroom remodel (1,260 filed, 951 finished; contractors); kitchen remodel (823 filed, 589 finished; contractors); stairs (364 filed, 246 finished; contractors); deck (327 filed, 234 finished; contractors). Other types: 5,440 permits.

Nearby neighborhoods

McLaren Park, Visitacion Valley, Bayview Hunters Point; 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.