How long do stairs permits take in San Francisco's Sunset/Parkside neighborhood?

In the Sunset/Parkside neighborhood of San Francisco, of the 109 stairs permits filed from October 2025 through September 2026 that have been issued, half were issued within 13 days, down from 18 days a year earlier. Of the 101 permits filed from October 2023 through September 2024 that have reached final sign-off, half did so within 261 days of being issued, up from 236 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	109 issued	13	110 issued	18
Permit issued to final sign-off	October 2023 through September 2024	101 finished	261	76 finished	236

“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	2	1			0			0	too recent
2026-Q3	41	20	8	35	4			0	too recent
2026-Q2	45	37	22	97	8	42	104	0	too recent
2026-Q1	34	29	7	48	16	75	188	0	too recent
2025-Q4	27	23	20	82	10	159	344	0	too recent
2025-Q3	30	26	36	115	15	171	348	0	too recent
2025-Q2	34	27	12	154	15	148	306	0	too recent
2025-Q1	25	23	24	74	15	150	324	0	too recent
2024-Q4	37	34	19	197	26	155	342	0	too recent
2024-Q3	40	38	26	175	34	266	439	0	yes
2024-Q2	35	34	20	175	27	191	480	0	yes
2024-Q1	20	19	35	73	18	283	747	0	yes
2023-Q4	31	27	15	183	22	220	542	1	yes
2023-Q3	36	32	15	523	27	221	638	5	yes
2023-Q2	28	26	4	56	22	158	532	5	yes
2023-Q1	19	13	8	1,087	9	210	577	0	yes
2022-Q4	26	22	60	498	18	352	643	3	yes
2022-Q3	27	24	17	318	21	233	687	3	yes
2022-Q2	42	38	21	467	27	309	743	10	yes
2022-Q1	46	37	17	692	29	231	652	6	yes
2021-Q4	34	30	46	431	25	333	741	5	yes
2021-Q3	35	32	18	545	28	470	993	5	yes
2021-Q2	32	28	81	463	22	330	848	5	yes
2021-Q1	37	31	59	366	24	389	864	6	yes
2020-Q4	34	30	115	446	27	301	650	2	yes
2020-Q3	35	26	142	570	21	203	781	6	yes
2020-Q2	10	8	76	241	5	259	655	2	yes
2020-Q1	24	20	29	553	17	226	773	3	yes
2019-Q4	30	26	48	642	19	508	809	8	yes
2019-Q3	28	27	20	449	22	298	743	3	yes
2019-Q2	30	27	7	97	21	135	524	5	yes
2019-Q1	36	34	16	191	28	213	681	2	yes
2018-Q4	31	30	14	128	29	262	608	1	yes
2018-Q3	32	32	8	70	26	176	494	5	yes
2018-Q2	30	28	18	285	23	173	801	2	yes
2018-Q1	29	27	18	246	23	232	594	3	yes
2017-Q4	24	23	42	453	22	281	790	1	yes
2017-Q3	40	39	6	388	32	221	568	4	yes
2017-Q2	34	33	3	224	32	200	467	1	yes
2017-Q1	25	24	9	55	23	191	450	1	yes
2016-Q4	25	22	18	185	16	180	501	4	yes
2016-Q3	36	33	8	919	26	232	627	7	yes
2016-Q2	26	23	4	110	18	182	409	6	yes
2016-Q1	35	32	3	141	22	136	528	6	yes
2015-Q4	37	36	14	304	30	194	541	3	yes
2015-Q3	41	39	2	375	31	154	599	6	yes
2015-Q2	36	33	6	223	25	262	483	7	yes
2015-Q1	33	32	10	200	26	226	824	4	yes
2014-Q4	27	25	7	356	17	355	777	6	yes
2014-Q3	39	36	11	252	23	159	446	12	yes
2014-Q2	36	34	2	191	29	143	570	4	yes
2014-Q1	23	21	10	59	16	213	526	3	yes
2013-Q4	22	22	2	214	18	206	627	2	yes
2013-Q3	23	21	3	11	18	148	291	2	yes
2013-Q2	32	27	1	119	24	178	592	3	yes
2013-Q1	19	19	1	54	16	152	341	2	yes
2012-Q4	26	26	2	229	20	160	372	4	yes
2012-Q3	28	27	0	39	19	77	452	7	yes
2012-Q2	24	22	2	113	18	130	762	3	yes
2012-Q1	18	17	0	29	16	106	246	0	yes
2011-Q4	20	20	4	33	18	81	379	2	yes
2011-Q3	22	21	1	77	19	85	269	1	yes
2011-Q2	25	23	1	15	20	114	277	1	yes
2011-Q1	25	24	1	170	22	97	327	1	yes
2010-Q4	13	13	2	146	10	226	452	3	yes
2010-Q3	26	24	0	7	23	71	350	1	yes
2010-Q2	20	18	6	182	15	216	528	1	yes
2010-Q1	23	21	0	8	17	73	524	3	yes
2009-Q4	23	21	1	185	17	147	411	3	yes
2009-Q3	28	28	0	44	27	77	258	1	yes
2009-Q2	21	21	0	7	17	78	168	1	yes
2009-Q1	16	15	0	17	12	144	273	2	yes
2008-Q4	24	23	1	9	17	128	198	3	yes
2008-Q3	37	37	0	80	32	123	248	3	yes
2008-Q2	40	36	0	74	28	118	368	8	yes
2008-Q1	21	19	1	65	12	100	281	4	yes
2007-Q4	22	22	4	138	20	184	342	0	yes
2007-Q3	35	35	0	1	26	144	318	6	yes
2007-Q2	32	32	0	3	21	202	395	5	yes
2007-Q1	27	25	0	56	18	110	253	4	yes
2006-Q4	29	28	0	0	21	147	245	7	yes
2006-Q3	31	30	0	200	22	122	232	4	yes
2006-Q2	23	23	0	159	12	68	143	6	yes
2006-Q1	22	21	0	0	15	109	232	3	yes
2005-Q4	17	16	0	322	12	131	236	2	yes
2005-Q3	34	33	0	2	25	124	367	3	yes
2005-Q2	27	26	0	268	17	139	379	3	yes
2005-Q1	13	13	0	58	10	64	310	2	yes
2004-Q4	16	16	0	0	10	70	198	6	yes
2004-Q3	27	27	0	126	20	102	331	2	yes
2004-Q2	36	35	0	0	22	105	301	6	yes
2004-Q1	15	15	0	160	12	108	190	2	yes
2003-Q4	19	19	0	58	12	118	339	6	yes
2003-Q3	22	22	0	39	17	121	401	3	yes
2003-Q2	21	21	0	0	15	111	188	4	yes
2003-Q1	12	12	0	70	9	110	249	3	yes
2002-Q4	22	20	0	13	11	112	348	7	yes
2002-Q3	29	27	0	26	20	72	252	4	yes
2002-Q2	11	11	0	6	6	86	255	1	yes
2002-Q1	24	24	0	147	15	42	205	1	yes
2001-Q4	14	14	0	0	8	129	242	0	yes
2001-Q3	23	22	0	94	15	98	166	0	yes
2001-Q2	10	10	0	62	9	79	199	0	yes
2001-Q1	10	10	0	1	8	171	462	0	yes
2000-Q4	7	7	0	142	6	214	486	0	yes
2000-Q3	13	13	0	0	6	36	238	1	yes
2000-Q2	15	13	0	297	11	150	241	0	yes
2000-Q1	16	15	0	140	6	170	680	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

323 of the 2,879 stairs permits filed since 2000 (11%) 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 Sunset/Parkside neighborhood

Shown apart, with their own page here: bathroom remodel (10,452 filed, 8,088 finished; contractors); kitchen remodel (7,313 filed, 5,521 finished; contractors); stairs (2,879 filed, 2,023 finished; contractors); deck (1,899 filed, 1,354 finished; contractors); roof deck (201 filed, 116 finished; contractors). Other types: 33,821 permits. All permits in San Francisco's Sunset/Parkside neighborhood

Nearby neighborhoods

Inner Sunset, Golden Gate Park, Lakeshore; 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.