After a slow start to the year, residential development in Los Angeles is picking up.
New data shows that between July and September, permits for 2,557 housing units were approved for the city of Los Angeles, according to Hilgard Economics, an LA-based economic and planning research firm. That’s a more than 60% increase from the same three-month period in 2024, and it’s a faster pace than the first two quarters of the year.
The update on the permitting landscape comes as the city continues its recovery from January’s catastrophic wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes. In the city’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood alone, more than $17 billion worth of residences were razed.
It’s been a sort of double-edged sword for the permitting environment. On the one hand, earlier this year, the fires slowed down permitting activity, giving way to an “unusually weak beginning of the year.” Now, as the rebuild has picked up speed, so has demand and approval for new permits.
“These approvals added noticeable volume to the third quarter total and helped lift citywide figures,” according to the report released Tuesday.
As of Oct. 21, the city of Los Angeles’ rebuilding dashboard showed 821 permits had been issued across 437 addresses. In the Palisades specifically, 258 new homes had been approved as of Oct. 1, according to Pali Builds, a data platform created by residents to track permitting.
LA residential permitting lags behind historical norms
It’s more than just the fires that have disrupted permitting in the city this year.
The Hilgard report also cites inflation, high interest rates and uncertainty around trade and immigration policy as deterrents for permitting in Los Angeles.
Together, those factors plus the fire, have 2025 on track to see significantly dampened permitting activity compared to the previous 10 years. With the exception of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic created snags in the permitting pipeline, the city saw around 13,000 permits approved annually between 2015 and 2022.
In 2023, that figure dropped to about 11,300, and last year, fewer than 9,000 units were approved. So far, 2025 is not keeping pace with 2024.
It’s possible for the city to narrow its gap with last year’s total “if permitting continues near current levels,” but returning to the high production levels of the last decade “will take time and better financing conditions,” according to Hilgard.