About this data
Where the property permit reports get their data, how often it refreshes, how parcels are matched to permits, what counts as permit activity, known limitations, and how to report a correction.
Where the data comes from
Every report is assembled live from public records, and every fact on it names its source. Nothing is typed in by us and nothing comes from listings.
- Pima County parcel file (City of Tucson GIS, county-wide layer) — parcel number, site address, jurisdiction, zoning, assessor use class, acreage, parcel outline.
- Pima County Assessor — year built (the assessor’s effective construction year for houses), living or building area, cooling and heating type, roof, pool, garage, and the recorded sales the Assessor keeps from affidavits of property value. Owner names, mailing addresses and notes are dropped before anything reaches the page.
- City of Tucson Property Research Online (PRO) — the City’s own permit file, back to about 2006 and further on some parcels: permits, statuses, inspection results, contractor of record, plan documents (via the City’s OnBase viewer).
- City of Tucson GIS permit and code-enforcement layers (2022 onward) — the typed permit feed and code cases; the commercial map’s “permits since 2022” counts come from here.
- Pima County Accela — permits for unincorporated Pima County (searched by parcel and by address, because the county’s parcel links break on older records).
- Town of Oro Valley SmartGov — town permits. Marana and Sahuarita run portals we cannot read from a server; their reports link you to the town’s own search with the parcel number.
- Pima County Regional Wastewater — sewer connection records. FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer — flood zone. City of Tucson historic-preservation layers — HPZ / National Register status (City of Tucson only).
- Pima County orthophotos (Pictometry 2024 / PAG 2023 / NAIP 2023 mosaic) — the aerial photos; OpenStreetMap — the base map. Street View and Google Earth are links to Google, never fetched by us.
How often it refreshes
A report is read live the first time it is opened and cached for up to seven days; every report shows “Public records last checked” with the date. The commercial and residential maps read the parcel layer live as you move; the commercial directory’s permit counts are refreshed from the GIS feed on a schedule (the date is on the page). A daily canary checks that each source still answers.
How parcels are matched to permits
By the county parcel number first (the City and County both key permits by APN), and for the County, by site address as well because older county records lose their parcel link. City GIS records that carry only an address are matched to the parcel the address geocodes to. A permit that cannot be tied to the parcel is not shown. Umbrella permits (a remodel or a solar job that includes panel work without naming it) are flagged so a blank line points at them instead of implying nothing happened.
What “permit activity” means
On the commercial map and directory, “N permits since 2022” counts City of Tucson commercial building permits on the parcel from the GIS feed (which begins in 2022), and “latest activity” is the issue month of the newest one. On a report, the permit history is the full record from every source we read, newest first, with each permit’s official status exactly as the issuing office records it.
Which statuses count
Statuses are normalised into six classes: final (Final / Complete / C of O — city records show the permit was finalized), issued (permitted, completion not confirmed), review (applied / approved / fees paid — proposed, not completion), expired (expired without a confirmed final), void (void / withdrawn / canceled — not evidence the work exists) and unknown (shown raw). Cancelled, expired, withdrawn and void permits are shown in the table but never drive a conclusion; only a finaled permit can make a system read as “current”.
Known limitations
- A found permit is strong evidence; a missing one is weak evidence — plenty of work is never permitted, and older county records were only partly moved online.
- Year built is the Assessor’s effective construction year for houses, which can move after a major remodel; the era-based findings are possibilities from that year, not observations.
- The Assessor’s cooling, heating and roof fields can lag permitted work.
- Marana and Sahuarita town permits are not readable from a server; South Tucson likewise.
- Aerials and Street View are context, never evidence; the imagery date is the provider’s.
- Nothing here is an inspection, and nothing confirms what is installed at an address.
Report a correction
See an error in a public-record report — a permit on the wrong parcel, a status read wrong, an address that does not match? Tell us and we will check the source and fix the match. This form goes to us, not to any agency.
Written and maintained by Arizona Electrical Solutions, LLC, a licensed Tucson contractor (ROC 276948 CR-11 electrical, ROC 326401 CR-39 HVAC, ROC 329360 KB-1, ROC 312437 KA). The tools are free and public-record only; we never show ownership, people or listing status.