The Reality Check
What building in LA really takes.
Anyone can promise a fast project. The public record says what actually happens: these are the real median times from permit submission to issuance across the Westside and Valley neighborhoods we build in — computed from City of Los Angeles building-permit records, not estimated.
Neighborhoods
Coastal & Beach
Pacific Palisades · 90272
89
median days to a building permit
2,473 residential building permits issued · 1,218 new homes permitted — last 12 months
Venice · 90291
114
median days to a building permit
712 residential building permits issued · 34 new homes permitted — last 12 months
Marina del Rey · 90292
74
median days to a building permit
252 residential building permits issued · 5 new homes permitted — last 12 months
Playa del Rey · 90293
84
median days to a building permit
211 residential building permits issued · 1 new homes permitted — last 12 months
Neighborhoods
Central Westside
Brentwood · 90049
74
median days to a building permit
1,014 residential building permits issued · 80 new homes permitted — last 12 months
Bel Air & Beverly Glen · 90077
90
median days to a building permit
381 residential building permits issued · 24 new homes permitted — last 12 months
Beverly Hills Post Office · 90210
109
median days to a building permit
323 residential building permits issued · 26 new homes permitted — last 12 months
Westwood · 90024
72
median days to a building permit
554 residential building permits issued · 15 new homes permitted — last 12 months
Century City · 90067
52
median days to a building permit
348 residential building permits issued · 0 new homes permitted — last 12 months
West LA — Sawtelle · 90025
57
median days to a building permit
616 residential building permits issued · 36 new homes permitted — last 12 months
West LA — Rancho Park · 90064
72
median days to a building permit
781 residential building permits issued · 45 new homes permitted — last 12 months
Mar Vista · 90066
90
median days to a building permit
1,041 residential building permits issued · 58 new homes permitted — last 12 months
Playa Vista · 90094
57
median days to a building permit
78 residential building permits issued · 0 new homes permitted — last 12 months
Westchester · 90045
78
median days to a building permit
1,081 residential building permits issued · 44 new homes permitted — last 12 months
Neighborhoods
Passes & Valley Edge
Sherman Oaks — Hills · 91403
69
median days to a building permit
494 residential building permits issued · 28 new homes permitted — last 12 months
Sherman Oaks — Valley · 91423
82
median days to a building permit
639 residential building permits issued · 45 new homes permitted — last 12 months
Encino · 91316
64
median days to a building permit
565 residential building permits issued · 38 new homes permitted — last 12 months
Encino Hills · 91436
83
median days to a building permit
472 residential building permits issued · 53 new homes permitted — last 12 months
Woodland Hills · 91364, 91367
62
median days to a building permit
1,672 residential building permits issued · 119 new homes permitted — last 12 months
As of September 10, 2026 · Computed from LADBS Building Permits Issued (City of Los Angeles open data): new construction, additions and alterations issued in the trailing 12 months, grouped by ZIP code. Median measures submission to issuance. Beverly Hills Post Office is the part of 90210 inside the City of Los Angeles.
Separate cities
Santa Monica & Culver City, from their own records.
These cities run their own permit departments and publish no open data, so their numbers come straight from each city’s public permit portal, compiled monthly. Their portals do not publish issuance dates, which is why these cards read differently from the LA cards above — we show what each city actually makes measurable, never an estimate.
Santa Monica
53%
of residential permits filed 6+ months ago have been issued
3,268 residential building permits filed — last 12 months
Median wait observed so far: 48 days (from 96 permits we watched go from filed to issued).
Culver City
61%
of residential permits filed 6+ months ago have been issued
207 residential building permits filed · 102 for new homes — last 12 months
Median days to a permit: still being measured — the city doesn’t publish issuance dates, so we track each permit month over month and the median appears once enough have completed the journey.
As of October 3, 2026 · Compiled monthly from each city’s public permit portal (Accela Citizen Access). Counts cover residential building permits, excluding trade, solar and express/minor permit types. Not comparable one-to-one with the LA figures above, which come from a citywide dataset with exact issuance dates.
Why we publish this
Owners deserve a straight answer about timelines before they commit to anything. The permit clock is set by the city, not the builder — but knowing the real medians for your neighborhood is how you tell an honest schedule from a sales pitch. We run our pre-construction process against these numbers, and we support the Palisades rebuild tracker, which applies the same idea to fire recovery, updated daily.
What about Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Malibu and Manhattan Beach?
They are separate cities with their own permit departments — Santa Monica (90401–90405), Beverly Hills proper (90211, 90212 and the city side of 90210), Culver City (90230, 90232), Malibu (90265) and Manhattan Beach (90266) do not appear in Los Angeles city records, and Topanga (90290) is unincorporated county. We would rather leave a neighborhood out than estimate it. Santa Monica and Culver City now have their own section above, compiled monthly from each city’s permit portal. Beverly Hills, Malibu and Manhattan Beach publish even less — we build in all of them, and as their systems make comparable data available, they will be added here too.
Want the real numbers for your project?
Our pre-construction planning turns these medians into a schedule you can hold us to.