to the first dated response from any city department where activity data is available.
Bellevue permit data
What 504 new-home permits reveal.
See how long recent Bellevue permits took, which city teams responded first, how often plans needed changes, and where active permits are waiting. Filter by builder for more context, but remember that every project is different.
504 qualifying new-home permitsApplications from Sep 2024 through Sep 2026Updated Sep 15, 2026
for every assigned department to finish the first review where the full round is public.
across permits with complete public review activity.
median application-to-issuance time among 325 permits with both dates.
Showing the full 504-permit sample. 292 permits currently have a reviewed custom or spec builder label.
Builder comparison
Timing across the full sample
Custom and spec groups use reviewed builder labels and recalculate with every weekly snapshot. Spec builders often repeat teams and processes, but the public data cannot isolate why one group was faster or slower.
Average time to issue
Selected
182.3 days
All builders
182.3 days
Complete first review
Selected
34.1 days
All builders
34.1 days
First city response
Selected
5.1 days
All builders
5.1 days
Revision rounds
Selected
2.5
All builders
2.5
Project mix
What is being built
Normalized from the public project description so unlike projects can be separated.
Construction
Issued permit to final approval
Based on 111 permits with both issued and finaled dates.
Location context
Where projects are concentrated
Neighborhood names come from the public parcel geocoder and are directional rather than formal boundaries.
Supplemental parcel context
Most common assessor zoning labels
These labels support broad comparisons only and are not city zoning determinations. Confirm current zoning in Bellevue's official map.
Supporting permit records
Fees, inspections, and companion permits
These describe the public permit record, not total design, construction, utility, or professional costs.
Department timing
Average first-review response
Calendar days from application to each department’s first dated response.
Active permits
Why permits are waiting now
A snapshot of the latest public review state, not proof that anyone forgot.
Issued permits
How long issuance took
Distribution from application date to issued date for completed permits in this selection.
Data quality
How much of the live sample is enriched
Coverage is published with each snapshot so missing optional data is not mistaken for zero activity.
Read this before comparing
Useful benchmarks, not promises.
The analysis starts with Bellevue BS “New House or Large Addition” permits published by MyBuildingPermit, then uses the public project description to retain 504 new-home permits and exclude identifiable large additions. This is a new-home cohort, not a count of every Bellevue building permit. Averages exclude records without the dates needed for that metric.
The dataset checks for newly filed projects daily and refreshes existing project details on a rolling monthly schedule. Successful discovery, detail and status-refresh batches recalculate this analysis automatically. Sunday recalculation remains a safety net. A recent analysis date does not mean every underlying record was fetched that day.
Projects are classified from the public description and grouped by parcel, project name, and application year so multi-building developments can be identified. Custom and spec builder comparisons include only builders with a reviewed label and recalculate with each successful analysis. Builder names may be missing or incomplete, and small samples should not be treated as a quality ranking.
Bellevue does not publish the exact date a permit becomes Ready to Issue. “Final approval to issue” is therefore a proxy: issued date minus the latest final department approval date.
Construction measures use substantive dated inspections after issuance and exclude canceled, scheduled, preconstruction, job-conference, and job-start rows. Issuance-to-final timing includes only permits already finaled. Other parcel permit records can include unrelated historical work and are not treated as confirmed companion permits.
Build Eastside provides this benchmark analysis for free under its Terms of Use.
Practical worksheet
Put this guide to work
Worksheet updated . This is a planning example. Regulatory sources and data have their own dates.
Use the numbers without turning them into a promise
A completed-permit median of five months does not mean a currently reviewed permit has five months remaining. It describes the midpoint of a particular completed group. A first-review target measures a different interval and may exclude correction time.
- Comparable scope
- Choose the same city and permit family. Check new house versus addition, review complexity, sample size and the observation period.
- Matching milestones
- Identify the start and end dates, business or calendar days, excluded periods and whether the data includes applicant response time.
- Current next step
- Estimate remaining work from the latest meaningful event and open reviews. Keep consultant response commitments separate from city targets.
- Uncertainty
- Use a range and note missing information. Active permits are unfinished observations, not failed or completed cases, and small samples can be unstable.
Treat a comparison as a planning aid and a reason to ask better questions. Do not rank a city, architect or builder by elapsed time alone without accounting for project scope, corrections, owner decisions and incomplete records.