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Between Monday, October 26 and Friday, October 30, the City of Austin issued 41 building permits for new single-family houses. Another 46 went to remodels and repairs on existing houses, 33 to additions and alterations, and 18 to demolish one-family houses. For the year so far, January 1 through October 30, new-house building permits stand at 1,845, up from 1,742 at the same point in 2025.
Those are small numbers next to the ones you may have seen for this same record. We have to start with why, because one of our own earlier pieces got it wrong.
A correction on how to count a new house
The city's open-data feed of issued construction permits lists every permit, not every house. A new house usually carries four: a building permit, plus separate electrical, mechanical and plumbing permits, all tagged with the same class (R- 101 Single Family Houses) and the same work class (New). For the week of October 26, the feed shows 186 permits that fit that tag. Only 41 of them are building permits.
Our October 4 piece counted all four kinds and reported 1,205 new houses for August 3 to September 27. The correct figure for new-house building permits is 315. We have corrected that article and its tables, and the version you will find there now matches the numbers below. Every count in this piece uses permit type BP, the building permit, and nothing else.
The week of October 26
| Permit class | Permits |
|---|---|
| Renovations and remodels (R- 435) | 46 |
| New single-family houses (R- 101) | 41 |
| Additions and alterations (R- 434) | 33 |
| Demolition, one-family houses (R- 645) | 18 |
| New two-family buildings (R- 103) | 0 |
Eight of the 41 new-house permits were in ZIP 78729 and five in 78754; no other ZIP had more than four. ZIP codes are mailing areas, and with counts this small they say where the city issued paper, nothing more. Records can post to the feed after their issue date, so the newest week is best read as a floor.
Thirteen weeks of new-house building permits
| Week beginning | Permits | Week beginning | Permits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug. 3 | 38 | Sept. 14 | 29 |
| Aug. 10 | 62 | Sept. 21 | 49 |
| Aug. 17 | 36 | Sept. 28 | 45 |
| Aug. 24 | 31 | Oct. 5 | 43 |
| Aug. 31 | 31 | Oct. 12 | 30 |
| Sept. 7 | 39 | Oct. 19 | 44 |
| Oct. 26 | 41 |
Across the thirteen weeks that is 518 permits, about 40 a week. Last week sits right in the middle of the range, which ran from 29 to 62.
The year so far
| Year | Single-family houses (R- 101) | Two-family buildings (R- 103) |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1,343 | 65 |
| 2024 | 1,480 | 92 |
| 2025 | 1,742 | 323 |
| 2026 | 1,845 | 125 |
Single-family house permits are up about 6 percent on 2025 and about 25 percent on 2024. Two-family buildings are down about 61 percent from 2025, which was the unusual year; 2026 is still above 2023 and 2024. The records do not say why. Lot rules, builders' plans, financing and the calendar could each play a part, and we would rather leave the reason blank than guess.
For the longer view on two-family buildings, see how one ZIP filed more than half of 2025's. For what the demolition column means for a street, see our look at house demolition permits, and for the remodel column, additions and remodels in 2026.
What a permit does and does not tell you
- It is permission to start, not a finished house. Some permits are issued months before a slab and some houses are never built.
- One house is several permits. Count building permits for houses, and expect the trade permits to be about three times as many.
- It is not a price or a sale. The feed has no sale price, and nothing here uses MLS data or says what a permit does to a home's value.
What this means if you're buying, selling or living nearby
If you are buying a new build. Ask the builder for the building permit number and look it up on the city's portal before you sign. The record shows when it was applied for and issued and its current status.
If you are buying or selling a resale home. Construction on a street is a fact for a while: trucks, noise in work hours, a changed view. You can check what has been permitted near an address for free. Our partner research site Zabalist keeps a permit history by address, and its "who built my house" search is the quickest way to read it.
If you are renting. A demolition permit next door and a new-house permit on the same lot often arrive in the same month. The permit tells you work is coming, not what the finished building will rent for.
How we counted
The source is the City of Austin's Issued Construction Permits dataset, with permits issued through October 30, 2026. We selected permit type BP, the residential classes named in each table, and grouped by issue date. Our copy of the records is in the Zabalist research database (permits table last synced November 1, 2026 at 06:39 UTC, status ok), and we confirmed the year-to-date counts against the city's feed directly. Percent changes, the 518 total and the weekly average are our arithmetic. Search demand context: "austin housing market" draws about 2,000 searches a month in the U.S. (Ahrefs, November 2026); "austin building permits" about 90. More of our records are on the research hub.
One next step
If you are weighing a specific block or a specific new build, a local agent can pull the permit and parcel records for that address with you before you make an offer. Start at our get started page.