Santa Clara County Building Permits: October 2026
Fast answer: 3,113 permits were recorded in Santa Clara County in October 2026 in this snapshot, 2,461 of them in San Jose. Five of the seven cities publish monthly reports and their October reports were not yet released at collection, so their records here run through September 30, 2026.
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What this report is
A one-page count of building permits recorded across the seven Santa Clara County cities PermitBriefly tracks, for the month of October 2026. It exists so contractors, suppliers, and local outlets can cite the same numbers. It is not a list of available jobs, and it publishes no addresses or individual permit rows.
San Jose by trade, October 2026
San Jose movers, September to October
San Jose is the only large city with a complete October in this snapshot, so the honest month-over-month read is a San Jose read.
| Trade | Sep 2026 | Oct 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reroof | 361 | 349 | -12 |
| Water heater | 307 | 352 | +45 |
| HVAC | 255 | 257 | +2 |
| Solar | 196 | 196 | +0 |
| Plumbing | 9 | 8 | -1 |
| Electrical | 31 | 44 | +13 |
| Other / unclassified | 1,245 | 1,255 | +10 |
Coverage by city
| City | Records run | Permits in snapshot | October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Jose | 2026-08-25 to 2026-11-07 | 5,974 | October report not yet released |
| Los Altos Hills | 2026-06-29 to 2026-11-09 | 291 | October report not yet released |
| Saratoga | 2026-08-03 to 2026-10-30 | 658 | 218 |
| Morgan Hill | 2026-08-03 to 2026-10-30 | 577 | 189 |
| Milpitas | 2026-08-01 to 2026-09-30 | 292 | October report not yet released |
| Cupertino | 2026-08-04 to 2026-10-30 | 264 | 88 |
| Los Gatos | 2026-06-03 to 2026-10-30 | 264 | 97 |
County permits by month, this snapshot
Monthly totals mix cities with different windows, which is why the movers table above stays inside San Jose.
| Month | Permits |
|---|---|
| June 2026 | 10 |
| July 2026 | 70 |
| August 2026 | 1,331 |
| September 2026 | 3,203 |
| October 2026 | 3,113 |
| November 2026 | 593 |
Most active companies, October 2026
Companies with the most permits recorded in October across the covered cities, after the cleaning pass described in Methodology.
| Company | Permits |
|---|---|
| Sunrun | 72 |
| Tesla Energy Operations | 57 |
| Fuse Service | 42 |
| On-Time AC & Heating | 41 |
| Irbis HVAC | 37 |
| Qmerit Electrification | 29 |
| Jireh | 28 |
| Rando AAA HVAC | 24 |
| Atkinson Climatrollers | 22 |
| Center State Construction | 19 |
What the numbers say
Water heaters were San Jose's biggest tracked mover in October, +45 against September, and electrical was the fastest riser in percentage terms at +13 permits. Reroof, HVAC, and solar held roughly level. The single largest bucket stays Other / unclassified at 1,255 of San Jose's 2,461 October permits, a reminder that city descriptions, not PermitBriefly, decide how much of the market a trade filter can honestly name.
Who this report is for
Best for trade contractors and suppliers sizing a territory, and local outlets that need a citable count. Not for anyone looking for named job leads: this page deliberately carries no addresses, no owner names, and no individual permit rows.
How to use this report
- Contractors: read the movers table for your trade, then open your city hub for its trade mix and company table.
- Suppliers: the coverage table shows which cities are current and which lag a month, so a quiet city is a publishing lag until proven otherwise.
- Press and newsletters: cite the fast answer at the top and link this page; the methodology below is the sourcing.
But a permit is not a job
Correct, and this report does not pretend otherwise. A permit records administrative activity: it does not verify that work is pending, that a contractor is still involved, or that an owner wants to buy anything. The counts measure market activity, and that is all they are sold as.
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Start a Permit Pre-Check ($450)Methodology
- Source. Public building-permit records published by each city, collected by PermitBriefly in its Monday refresh. This page is built from the snapshot collected November 9, 2026. City windows differ by publisher: San Jose and Los Altos Hills arrive as rolling pulls; Saratoga, Morgan Hill, Milpitas, Cupertino, and Los Gatos publish monthly reports and lag one cycle.
- Counting. Every figure counts unique permits: records are deduplicated on city and permit number before any total, share, or valuation is computed, so a record a city lists twice is counted once.
- Trade categories. Assigned by PermitBriefly's automated filter over each record's work description. They are not classifications supplied by the city, and roughly half of all records land in "Other / unclassified" because their descriptions do not name a tracked trade.
- Valuations. The value the applicant reported to the city, printed only where at least 30 records in the group report a value above $0. A reported valuation is not a quote, a contract price, or a guarantee of project size.
- Company counts. Records are grouped with the same name normalization PermitBriefly uses in its own tooling, then matched against a hand-verified list of company names. Recorded names that are individuals, or that could not be verified as a company, are never printed.
- What is never published. Street addresses, property owner names, APNs, and individual permit rows stay off these public pages. They are the working data behind the subscriber dashboard.
Questions
How many permits were filed in Santa Clara County in October 2026?
3,113 were recorded in this snapshot, 2,461 of them in San Jose. Five cities' October reports were not yet released at collection, so the county figure grows when their reports land.
Why do some cities show no October records?
Saratoga, Morgan Hill, Milpitas, Cupertino, and Los Gatos publish permits in monthly reports. Their records in this snapshot run through September 30, 2026, and the coverage table above says so per city.
Can I get the full data behind this report?
The counts and company tables are on this page. The underlying records, with addresses and permit numbers, are the subscriber dashboard's working data and are not published on public pages.
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Check TEST availabilitySource: Santa Clara County building permit records, collected November 9, 2026 by PermitBriefly. Trade categories are automated filters of city work descriptions, not city classifications. Snapshot, not a live feed.