Original data · 2026-Q4 · updated 2026-10-04
State of the Trades
We aggregate code-enforcement cases and building permits from US county and municipal open-data portals. This quarter the corpus holds 315,883 records — 159,209 enforcement cases and 150,509 permits — across 26 states and 40 ranked cities. Free to cite. It is our corpus, not a national census; the methodology below says exactly what that means.
States by record volume
States below the minimum row count are omitted rather than shown with a small-sample number.
| # | State | Records | Enforcement | Permits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 64,930 | 56,239 | 8,691 |
| 2 | Florida | 43,374 | 3,896 | 39,478 |
| 3 | New York | 40,809 | 31,952 | 8,857 |
| 4 | Illinois | 27,403 | 18,614 | 8,789 |
| 5 | Louisiana | 17,533 | 3,185 | 14,348 |
| 6 | Washington | 13,316 | 4,040 | 9,276 |
| 7 | North Carolina | 12,240 | 6,532 | 5,708 |
| 8 | Texas | 11,250 | 5,065 | 6,185 |
| 9 | Pennsylvania | 11,229 | 0 | 11,229 |
| 10 | Tennessee | 8,416 | 5,394 | 3,022 |
| 11 | Kentucky | 7,285 | 7,173 | 112 |
| 12 | Ohio | 6,951 | 6,947 | 4 |
| 13 | Georgia | 6,446 | 3,364 | 3,082 |
| 14 | Virginia | 5,732 | 1,689 | 4,043 |
| 15 | Michigan | 3,523 | 3,355 | 168 |
| 16 | Maryland | 3,089 | 80 | 3,009 |
| 17 | Colorado | 3,085 | 0 | 3,085 |
| 18 | Arizona | 2,980 | 0 | 2,980 |
| 19 | Connecticut | 1,756 | 228 | 1,528 |
| 20 | Oregon | 1,504 | 201 | 1,303 |
Cities by record volume
| # | City | Records | Enforcement share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles, CA | 43,110 | 96% |
| 2 | New York, NY | 26,505 | 100% |
| 3 | Chicago, IL | 24,380 | 70% |
| 4 | San Diego, CA | 16,116 | 67% |
| 5 | New Orleans, LA | 15,423 | 8% |
| 6 | Philadelphia, PA | 14,441 | 0% |
| 7 | Seattle, WA | 13,510 | 33% |
| 8 | New York Permits, NY | 7,887 | 100% |
| 9 | Austin, TX | 6,674 | 81% |
| 10 | Louisville, KY | 6,324 | 100% |
| 11 | Charlotte, NC | 6,308 | 100% |
| 12 | Cincinnati, OH | 6,064 | 100% |
| 13 | Nashville, TN | 5,589 | 100% |
| 14 | Memphis, TN | 4,013 | 0% |
| 15 | Miami, FL | 3,791 | 77% |
| 16 | Detroit, MI | 3,756 | 89% |
| 17 | Bronx, NY | 3,623 | 0% |
| 18 | Denver, CO | 3,337 | 0% |
| 19 | Norfolk, VA | 2,981 | 44% |
| 20 | Chesterfield, VA | 2,954 | 0% |
| 21 | San Francisco, CA | 2,918 | 100% |
| 22 | Brooklyn, NY | 2,857 | 0% |
| 23 | Atlanta, GA | 2,840 | 99% |
| 24 | Orlando, FL | 2,780 | 0% |
| 25 | Scottsdale, AZ | 2,756 | 0% |
Records by month of event
When the record was filed with the city or county — not when we ingested it. Peak month in the corpus: 2026-08 (82,710 records).
Methodology
- corpus: Public records BellAveGo ingests from county and municipal open-data portals: code-enforcement cases and building permits.
- scope: This is OUR corpus, not a census of US code enforcement. Coverage is shaped by which jurisdictions publish machine-readable data, so absence from this report means a county does not publish, not that nothing happened there.
- min cell: States below 100 rows and cities below 200 rows are omitted rather than shown with a small-sample number.
- no projections: No market-size, dollar-impact or forward projections are derived from these counts.
Citing this report
Free to cite with a link. Suggested: “BellAveGo, State of the Trades 2026-Q4, 2026-10-04.” Journalists and researchers wanting the underlying per-city breakdown can text or call Peter directly at (773) 710-9565.
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