The Real Permit Numbers for Palisades Rebuild from PaliBuilds

This house in the Alphabet Streets is one of 104 that have received a new-home permit to rebuild after the Palisades Fire.
Photo: RICH SCHMITT/CTN

Pali Builds has compiled July Home Building Permit Numbers, which are lower than the Mayor’s. . . . much lower.

(Editor’s note: CTN was given permission to reprint this August 6 article, which is compiled by Frank Refro and Kambiz Kamdar for PaliBuilds.)

The July building permit data is here, and the total number of “new building” permits issued in July for single family homes in the Palisades is 44.  What does that mean?  That means 44 homes or lots have had new building permits approved to build a single-family home.

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’ office stated on Tuesday, August 5, that more than 380 “rebuilding plans” have been approved. Pali Builds feels this number is misleading because it doesn’t reflect the number of new homes approved to build. The number 380 reflects total permits related to building. The important number is new home permits, and that number is 104.

Building permit data is a strange beast — unique, messy, and open to interpretation. How do I know? I spent years building a large permit database in the U.S. for a venture I founded called Naybur. It didn’t work out (so no bragging rights), but the goal was simple: help homeowners find the contractors their neighbors had trusted in the past, so they could interview them for their own projects.

We believed quantitative data like this was far more valuable than vague testimonials such as, “Susie in Thousand Oaks said they were super-duper awesome.” To make it happen, I collected datasets manually from municipal employees in hundreds of cities, compiled millions of records, and then cleaned, parsed, and standardized them into something usable. In the process, I became something of an expert on building permit data.

But here’s the catch: permit data is only as accurate as “Bob the Builder” writing the job description, and the city employee entering the details and adding notes. Every applicant uses different language, and every city staffer has their own style, which means the same type of project might be described in completely different ways. That’s why you can’t just run a simple query or script and expect perfect answers — you have to look at each permit closely and in context.

Things to remember:

1. Any home address can have 1 or 8 permits tied to it at the same time; a plumbing, swimming pool, new bldg, electrical, grading, demolition, etc.  All of these are individual permits could actually reflect only one rebuild.
2. There are permit applications and issued permits.  Not all permit applications get approved.  If you look at the average approval time of issued permits, you are taking only those permits that have been issued.  In other words, if you look at the approval time of all permits that were initiated in June, you can’t average in the number of days of the “still pending” permits.  You can only calculate the average days of those that were approved at the time you calculated the average.
3. Assume a margin of error around 10%.  Permits get edited, there are duplicates sometimes, and people like me will make mistakes.

Mayor Bass’ number of 380 reflects total permits related to building. The important number is new home permits, and that number is 104.

As of July 30, 2025, Pali Builds counts 104 approved “new builds” in the Pacific Palisades since the fire.  The Mayor’s number is 265% higher than ours.

Let’s start with July numbers:

Approved “New Building” permits for homes – 44 (unique addresses)

Approved permits for commercial permits – 3 (unique addresses. 0 new builds)

Since the fire:

For “New Building” permits issued – the average time was 62 days

Let’s break them down by month.  The numbers below reflect permits issued each month, and how long they took to be issued. This is only for “New Building” permits, not swimming pools, demo, etc.

March –  2 permits issued, 31 days

April –  5  permits issued, 46 days

May – 24 permits issued,  56 days

June – 29 permits issued, 71 days

July –  39 permits issued, 63 days

The total of new building permits issued for five months was 99.

OTHER PERMITS

Now let’s look at the time and volume of all permit types that were issued, not just “New Building.” This includes Electrical, Grading, etc.  Again, the below numbers reflect permits issued in each month, and how long they took to be issued.

January –  4 permits issued, 2 days

February  –  10 permits issued, 14 days

March  – 12 permits issued, 19 days

April –  42 permits issued, 26 days

May – 90 permits issued, 35 days

June – 108 permits, 45 days

July –  98 permits, 46 days

Here are some other interesting data points we collected:

About 73% of the building permit applications are like-for-like plans, making them an “eligible project.”  This means about 25% of those applying for permits want to build something that exceeds 110% most likely.  Again, remember the margin-of-error.

And lastly, I thought we’d throw in this house-size morsel.  According to all permit applications, here is the breakdown of home levels:

Single Story :   28

Double Story: 139

Three Story:   4

We will be mapping all the newly issued permits and permit applications soon. July home sales data is coming soon so you can see buyer profiles.

Please feel free to reach out to us for help.  Need a graph or infographic for media?  Email us at info@palibuilds.com.  We’re happy to share as long as you reference us as the source.

(A personal note from the authors: It gives us no pleasure in sharing the real rebuild numbers here, since they’re lower than our local governments’.  We are from the Palisades, love our community, and want nothing more than everyone to move “home” sooner rather than later, but hopefully this data can help improve operational efficiencies and enable a faster rebuild.  For example, maybe a dedicated location and staff at the Dept. of Building & Safety for Palisades permits?  They would be Pali experts!! Frank and Kambiz PaliBuilds.com)