226,885 permits · 17 cities · updated 2026-09-24

Everyone quotes you an estimate. This is what people actually declared.

Every remodel in an American city needs a permit, and the permit carries the value of the work. Those filings are public — but nobody shows them to homeowners. We do.

The same job, wildly different cities

Project	Cheapest city	Priciest city	Spread
Window Replacement	Los Angeles $3,500	New York $50,000	14.3×
Water Heater	Los Angeles $1,000	New York $13,500	13.5×
Interior Remodel	Detroit $14,000	Raleigh $143,537	10.3×
Home Addition	Anaheim $19,903	Marin County $188,000	9.4×
Roof Replacement	Los Angeles $6,000	New York $50,000	8.3×
Kitchen Remodel	Kansas City $8,000	San Francisco $65,700	8.2×
Deck or Patio	Corona $5,375	Marin County $40,000	7.4×
Swimming Pool	Anaheim $20,000	Raleigh $142,985	7.1×
Bathroom Remodel	Kansas City $6,515	Baton Rouge $45,476	7.0×
Foundation Repair	Raleigh $7,859	Chicago $52,850	6.7×

Cities

Austin, TX 6 project types Chicago, IL 16 project types Los Angeles, CA 15 project types San Francisco, CA 14 project types New York, NY 15 project types Seattle, WA 11 project types New Orleans, LA 15 project types Montgomery County, MD 10 project types Kansas City, MO 13 project types Baton Rouge, LA 12 project types Marin County, CA 12 project types Everett, WA 12 project types Corona, CA 11 project types Anaheim, CA 9 project types Raleigh, NC 11 project types Detroit, MI 10 project types Sacramento, CA 16 project types

Why this is different

Cost guides you find elsewhere start from national averages and scale them by local wage data. That produces a plausible-looking number that nobody actually paid. A permit record is the opposite: one real project, one real address, one declared value. Put thousands of them together and you get the distribution — including how wide it is, which is the part an estimate can never tell you.

One honest caveat: a permit shows the declared value, which can sit below the final invoice, and unpermitted work never appears at all. We explain exactly what that means on the methodology page.