City
requirements.
Many Florida cities run their own building departments, with their own checklists, portals and file rules. We rank cities by new single-family permits in the U.S. Census Bureau's 2025 Building Permits Survey and publish a city page once we've read its own checklist. Port St. Lucie, Cape Coral and North Port are first.
St. Lucie County · zone 2APort St. LucieOutside consolidated Jacksonville, no Florida city permits more new houses.Lee County · zone 1ACape CoralFifty-character file names, a blank stamp square, and zone 1A heat.Sarasota County · zone 2ANorth PortThe energy form and the Manual J both need the legal description.Brevard County · zone 2APalm BayBrevard's busiest permit office: impact glass, one PDF per slot, and a canal rule.Osceola County · zone 2ASt. CloudTwenty megabytes, two leakage tests on site, and surveys before the slab.Flagler County · zone 2APalm CoastA separate signed front page, and no uploads while a review is open.
Top 20 Florida cities by 2025 permits
New privately-owned 1-unit housing units authorized, by permit-issuing place. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey, 2025 annual place file, South Region. Unincorporated county areas and consolidated Jacksonville-Duval (covered by the Duval County page) excluded; some places report fewer than 12 months and are imputed by the Bureau.
| City | County | 1-unit permits, 2025 | Page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Port St. Lucie | St. Lucie | 2,814 | Port St. Lucie page |
| Cape Coral | Lee | 2,013 | Cape Coral page |
| North Port | Sarasota | 1,910 | North Port page |
| Palm Bay | Brevard | 1,908 | Palm Bay page |
| Haines City | Polk | 1,453 | Queued |
| St. Cloud | Osceola | 1,430 | St. Cloud page |
| Palm Coast | Flagler | 1,356 | Palm Coast page |
| Apopka | Orange | 1,130 | Queued |
| Tampa | Hillsborough | 948 | Queued |
| Orlando | Orange | 945 | Queued |
| Winter Haven | Polk | 744 | Queued |
| St. Petersburg | Pinellas | 629 | Queued |
| Florida City | Miami-Dade | 594 | Queued |
| Westlake | Palm Beach | 585 | Queued |
| Homestead | Miami-Dade | 582 | Queued |
| Clermont | Lake | 561 | Queued |
| Minneola | Lake | 531 | Queued |
| Daytona Beach | Volusia | 529 | Queued |
| Plant City | Hillsborough | 517 | Queued |
| Lakeland | Polk | 492 | Queued |