Since January 2022
The read
The busiest full quarter on record in this window was 2025-Q4 with 1,537 permits. Like-for-like — 1 July to 15 August each year — 2026 is running at 869 permits against 580 in 2025 and 514 in 2024. Panel and service upgrades in the same slice: 50 vs 64 vs 49; HVAC changeouts 58 vs 64 vs 35; solar 65 vs 35 vs 18.
Panel and service upgrades issue fast: the median time from application to issue was 4 days in 2025 (n = 430), 8 days in 2024 (n = 371) and 5 days so far in 2026 (n = 202).
A permit that appears here is strong evidence work was proposed and, where finaled, inspected. Absence from these layers is weak evidence: they cover January 2022 onward, older permits live in the City’s Property Research Online file per parcel, and plenty of work is never permitted at all. Category counts use description keywords (listed in the method) and overlap slightly — do not sum them against the total.
Quarter by quarter
| Quarter | All permits | Panel / service | HVAC | Solar | EV | Remodel / addition | Tenant improvement | Elec. code cases |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-Q1 | 338 | 23 | 4 | 11 | 1 | 46 | 6 | 8 |
| 2022-Q2 | 733 | 89 | 20 | 52 | 0 | 62 | 6 | 13 |
| 2022-Q3 | 999 | 138 | 20 | 243 | 2 | 42 | 1 | 19 |
| 2022-Q4 | 1,220 | 145 | 17 | 234 | 2 | 44 | 6 | 91 |
| 2023-Q1 | 1,423 | 134 | 30 | 291 | 1 | 43 | 5 | 66 |
| 2023-Q2 | 1,364 | 135 | 93 | 210 | 3 | 70 | 7 | 85 |
| 2023-Q3 | 1,244 | 125 | 91 | 72 | 7 | 47 | 6 | 48 |
| 2023-Q4 | 1,117 | 116 | 68 | 49 | 6 | 44 | 2 | 33 |
| 2024-Q1 | 1,135 | 110 | 50 | 27 | 7 | 59 | 2 | 47 |
| 2024-Q2 | 1,201 | 123 | 96 | 51 | 1 | 67 | 8 | 45 |
| 2024-Q3 | 954 | 95 | 56 | 46 | 5 | 86 | 9 | 46 |
| 2024-Q4 | 665 | 43 | 45 | 62 | 2 | 55 | 4 | 22 |
| 2025-Q1 | 780 | 76 | 43 | 66 | 8 | 89 | 4 | 47 |
| 2025-Q2 | 1,037 | 85 | 75 | 55 | 6 | 87 | 4 | 32 |
| 2025-Q3 | 1,364 | 152 | 129 | 82 | 15 | 95 | 8 | 40 |
| 2025-Q4 | 1,537 | 117 | 69 | 133 | 11 | 113 | 5 | 34 |
| 2026-Q1 | 1,128 | 60 | 72 | 42 | 4 | 129 | 12 | 37 |
| 2026-Q2 | 1,522 | 92 | 133 | 80 | 7 | 194 | 26 | 52 |
| 2026-Q3 (to date) | 869 | 50 | 58 | 65 | 5 | 61 | 9 | 28 |
Residential (layer 85) and commercial (layer 81) building permits by issue date; code cases (layer 102) by opened date. The last row is quarter to date through 2026-08-15.
Same slice, three years
1 July to 15 August in each year, so the partial quarter is compared fairly.
| Category | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| All permits | 514 | 580 | 869 |
| Panel / service | 49 | 64 | 50 |
| HVAC | 35 | 64 | 58 |
| Solar | 18 | 35 | 65 |
| EV | 0 | 4 | 5 |
| Remodel / addition | 37 | 41 | 61 |
| Tenant improvement | 1 | 4 | 9 |
| Commercial service / switchgear | 11 | 2 | 1 |
| Elec. code cases | 26 | 19 | 28 |
Full Q3 for reference: 2024: 954 permits, 95 panel/service, 56 HVAC · 2025: 1,364 permits, 152 panel/service, 129 HVAC.
By City ward, trailing twelve months
2025-08-16 to 2026-08-15. Ward is a field on the permit record itself, so these are exact, not estimated.
| Ward | All permits | Panel / service | HVAC | Solar | EV | Remodel / addition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ward 1 | 850 | 61 | 44 | 54 | 5 | 79 |
| Ward 2 | 975 | 88 | 68 | 81 | 13 | 87 |
| Ward 3 | 899 | 55 | 67 | 33 | 3 | 89 |
| Ward 4 | 1,052 | 53 | 107 | 86 | 6 | 37 |
| Ward 5 | 831 | 50 | 53 | 45 | 5 | 59 |
| Ward 6 | 1,219 | 98 | 58 | 68 | 6 | 200 |
Solar permits that also carried a panel or service upgrade
When the panel upgrade rides inside the solar permit, a separate panel permit never appears — which is why the per-address report reads solar permits for upgrade language.
| Year | Solar permits | With upgrade language | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 540 | 85 | 15.7% |
| 2023 | 622 | 72 | 11.6% |
| 2024 | 186 | 33 | 17.7% |
| 2025 | 336 | 34 | 10.1% |
| 2026 | 187 | 13 | 7% |
Method
Source: City of Tucson GIS, PublicMaps/PermitsCode/MapServer layers 85 (residential building permits), 81 (commercial building permits) and 102 (code enforcement cases), read with statistics queries only — counts grouped by year and month, never rows, never description text. Categories are description-keyword filters; the exact clauses are below and in the published dataset (106 requests, generated 2026-08-16). EV counts are a floor (only permits that name the charger explicitly). Solar is WORKCLASS = 'Residential Solar Permit'; the application-stage class is excluded. Panel/service and switchgear share the phrase “service upgrade”; remodel and tenant improvement share “tenant improvement” — categories overlap and are not additive. Medians are found by binary search on counts of (issue date − application date). The layers begin in January 2022; the City’s Property Research Online file holds older permits per parcel.
- panel:
(UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%PANEL UPGRADE%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%MPU%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%SERVICE UPGRADE%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%ELECTRICAL UPGRADE%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%ELECTRIC UPGRADE%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%SERVICE CHANGE%') - hvac:
(UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%HVAC%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%CHANGE OUT%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%CHANGEOUT%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%HEAT PUMP%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%AIR CONDITION%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%A/C%') - solar:
WORKCLASS='Residential Solar Permit' - ev:
(UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%EV CHARG%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%ELECTRIC VEHICLE%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%EVSE%') - remodel:
(UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%REMODEL%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%ADDITION%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%RENOVAT%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%TENANT IMPROVEMENT%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%ADU%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%CASITA%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%GUEST HOUSE%') - codeElectrical:
(UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%ELECTRIC%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%WIRING%') - ti:
(UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%TENANT IMPROVEMENT%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%T.I.%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '% TI %') - switchgear:
(UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%SWITCHGEAR%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%SERVICE UPGRADE%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%SWITCHBOARD%' OR UPPER(DESCRIPTION) LIKE '%MDP%')
Cite as: Arizona Electrical Solutions, “Tucson Electrical & Remodel Permit Trends — Q3 2026,” 2026-08-16, https://www.aztucsonelectricalsolutions.com/tucson-permit-report-2026-q3/. Reuse of the numbers with attribution is welcome; questions to (520) 308-6235.
Use it on one address
The same layers, plus the City’s per-parcel file, Pima County and Oro Valley, read for any Pima County address: parcel, year built, permit history with official links, code cases and what each system’s record implies.