Triangle housing permits by county

Compare counties before you extend your service area

These seven counties authorized 23,643 new residential housing units in 2025. Compare totals and structure mix before choosing which builders or projects to investigate. The CSV covers Wake, Johnston, Franklin, Durham, Orange, Chatham, and Person counties.

Use annual observations for full-year comparisons and monthly observations for recent releases. Keep those series separate. Monthly sums can differ from final annual totals.

Of the 2025 total, 15,511 units were in one-unit structures. Each apartment also contributes one housing unit, so a large building can change the mix. Durham recorded 1,363 units in August 2026, including 1,158 in five-plus-unit structures. One month’s mix does not establish a lasting change in trade work.

The selected counties define this dataset’s area. They do not confirm Cercha’s exact service boundary, a member’s travel area, or the time needed to reach a site. Check your crew and delivery limits alongside the figures.

A housing authorization does not confirm a start date or an open bid package. Ask the builder about the actual scope, phase, and timing before committing people or materials.

Key findings from the recorded data

• The CSV contains 287 rows: 252 monthly observations and 35 final annual observations across seven counties.
• The seven-county 2025 total is 23,643 units, compared with 22,837 in 2024. The increase is 806 units, or 3.5%.
• The 2025 structure mix is 15,511 units in one-unit structures, 327 in two-to-four-unit structures, and 7,805 in five-plus-unit structures.
• Wake County’s 2025 total is 13,806 units, down 1,442 units (9.5%) from 15,248 in 2024.
• Durham County’s 2025 total is 4,772 units, up 1,867 units (64.3%) from 2,905 in 2024.
• The latest recorded month, August 2026, has 2,849 units across the seven counties, including 1,256 in one-unit structures.

How to use the table

Download the CSV. Filter period_type to annual for full-year comparisons or monthly for individual releases. Then select counties and periods.

Compare the structure columns before sorting by total_units. Preserve county_fips, period, and month as text when importing.

Annual changes compare the same county with its prior final annual record. Percent change is 100 × (current − prior) / prior, rounded half up to one decimal. A value of 10.0 means a 10.0% increase. For a combined county comparison, calculate change from summed counts rather than averaging county percentages.

Do not add monthly and annual rows together. Do not substitute a monthly sum for a final annual total. Durham’s 2025 monthly rows sum to 3,283 units; its final annual total is 4,772. Census methodology explains the separate treatment of county monthly estimates and annual totals.

Method and caveats

The extraction uses Census county files retrieved October 14, 2026, keyed to the seven county FIPS codes. The monthly window contains 36 consecutive current-month releases; the annual window contains five final years. The 2020 annual file supplies the baseline for 2021 changes.

Counts use the estimates-with-imputation fields, including Census estimates for missing reports. Two-unit and three-and-four-unit counts form two_to_four_units; all structure categories sum to total_units. Annual changes compare final annual files for the same county. No annual discrepancy is allocated back into individual months.

The CSV has no missing county records or source unit counts. Its 2,051 intentional blanks comprise 35 annual month cells and eight comparison fields across 252 monthly rows. Those fields are the prior year, two prior counts, two count changes, two percentage changes, and prior-year source URL.

Blanks do not mean zero change. Published zeros remain zero.

Counts describe new privately owned housing units authorized. They exclude publicly owned housing, HUD-code manufactured homes, and units created in existing buildings. They do not measure remodeling, starts, completions, active job sites, or demand for your services.

Monthly figures retain seasonality. Permit-office universe updates beginning in 2023 and monthly imputation changes beginning in 2025 can affect comparisons. Historical permit-office coverage changes were not reconstructed. County totals cover the county’s included permit jurisdictions, beyond its county government’s own permit office.

Where Cercha fits

Cercha starts in the Raleigh-Durham Triangle. Use Search by trade, ZIP code, and radius to find people for the conversations this research helps you prepare. Review portfolios and use Messages to ask about scope and timing. County permit totals do not establish a member’s projects or availability.