Answers · Chicago building permits
How do contractors find new construction leads in Chicago?
From the City's own permit file rather than a bought list. 2,744 permits were issued in the 30 days to 2026-07-29, each carrying an address, a work description and a reported cost. The file read on 2026-07-29 held permits issued 2026-07-28 — a one-day publication lag.
The record is the lead. A permit filed under PERMIT - NEW CONSTRUCTION names where the work is, what it is, what the applicant reported it costs, and who is attached to it — before anybody has been called.
No close rate, conversion rate or ROI figure appears on this page, because none has been measured. A vendor quoting you one is quoting a guess.
How this is measured
- Dataset
- ydr8-5enu
- Publisher
- City of Chicago
- Filter
- The 30-day count is every permit type citywide. The one-day lag is the gap between the issue dates present in the file and the day the file was read.
- Measured
- 2026-07-29
Caveat. Publication lag is measured on one read, not tracked as an average. A permit the City files late enters the record after the fact.
Permit Signal
Permit Signal is this file, filtered to one trade and delivered the morning each permit becomes public. The first delivery is three real records, free, with the government source link on every row.