San Jose
+124.1%
Permits increased from 3,510 to 7,866, the largest percentage gain among the 50 largest metros.
Supply Watch
Los Angeles builds against the national tide.
Residential permitting is losing ground across the country. Los Angeles, coming off a restrained base, just moved sharply in the other direction.
U.S. Permits1.42M
Annual Change-2.2%
Los Angeles+26.9%
The National Picture
The pipeline has been shrinking for three and a half years.
About 1.42 million private residential units were permitted during the 12 months ending May 2026, according to Zillow's analysis of Census Bureau data. That was 2.2% below the prior year and the 42nd consecutive month in which permitting declined annually.
The total was also 19.2% below Zillow's extrapolation of the pre-pandemic trend, the widest shortfall since the pandemic began. This is a forward-looking supply signal: fewer permits today generally mean fewer opportunities for completed homes later.
A permit expands the pipeline. It does not put a finished home on the market.
Los Angeles
Permitted units increased by 7,145 in one year.
Los Angeles rose from 26,564 permits in the prior 12-month period to 33,709 in the year ending May 2026. The 26.9% increase was the fourth-largest percentage gain among the 50 largest metropolitan areas, behind San Jose, Miami, and Cincinnati and just ahead of Seattle.
That is encouraging in a region where housing scarcity is structural, but the baseline matters. Zillow notes that several of the largest gains occurred in expensive coastal markets where permitting had been unusually depressed. Because the totals include apartments, condominiums, townhomes, and single-family homes, a handful of large multifamily approvals can move the annual figure substantially.
The next useful measures are starts and completions. Financing, construction costs, utility work, entitlement conditions, and market demand still stand between an approved unit and an occupied one.
Los Angeles
+26.9%
Permits increased from 26,564 to 33,709, a gain of 7,145 authorized units.
San Antonio
-31.0%
Permits fell from 13,762 to 9,500, the steepest decline in Zillow's large-metro table.
What Gets Finished
Completions are declining, and the homes are getting smaller.
Nationally, builders completed about 817,000 detached single-family homes in 2025, down 2.5% from 2024. It was the third consecutive annual decline and the lowest total since 2020, although still 4.4% above 2019. Attached-home completions declined 1.8% after rising 22.6% the year before.
Builders are also fitting new supply into less space. The median new detached home measured 2,300 square feet in 2025, compared with 2,400 before the pandemic. The median lot was 8,700 square feet, down from 9,000 in 2019. In the Pacific division, the median lot was about 6,100 square feet, the smallest of any region reported.
Construction time improved modestly. The median detached home took six months to complete in 2025, down from seven months in 2022 and 2023. Attached homes remained near seven months.
The Local Implications
More approvals are useful. Delivery will decide the market effect.
For buyers
The Los Angeles increase points to more future choice, especially around larger multifamily projects. It does not promise immediate relief in a particular neighborhood. Buyers should follow what is being built, when it is expected to open, and whether it is for sale or for rent.
For sellers
New construction competes with resale inventory through fresh finishes, lower near-term maintenance, and builder incentives. Existing homes retain an advantage when they offer a better location, more usable land, architectural character, or a layout that would be difficult to reproduce on today's smaller lots.
For investors and developers
The permit increase shows that more projects are making it through the approval process. The national pullback also suggests less supply competition later if those Los Angeles projects can be financed and completed. The opportunity sits in that gap, along with the execution risk.
Source note: this page is original commentary based on Zillow Research's September 2026 analysis of U.S. Census Bureau building-permit and Survey of Construction data, together with reporting by World Property Journal. Zillow's permit totals cover all private residential structure types and use rolling 12-month periods ending May 2026. Permits are authorizations, not starts or completed housing units. National size, lot, timing, and completion figures should not be read as Los Angeles-specific measures. Information and figures are subject to errors and omissions; readers should independently review and verify all data and property-specific information.
View the Zillow Research reportView the World Property Journal article
Local Supply
Want to understand what is being built near a property?
LA Creative Realty can review the immediate pipeline, comparable inventory, and neighborhood context before you make a move.
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