{"uid":"cap_tUfcehWmXNPR_Oa3uX3WZ","slug":"frontera-signal-monthly-building-permits-df70e783","name":"Frontera Signal Monthly Building Permits","description":"Use to track new housing permits month by month in Rio Grande Valley cities and county areas (Hidalgo, Cameron, Starr, Willacy counties): units and buildings by structure type and valuation since January 2024, with year-to-date totals. Filter by place, county, from and to (YYYY-MM). Covers cities that publish no weekly permits. Example: \"How many single-family homes did Brownsville permit each month this year?\"","url":"https://fronterasignal.com/api/v1/series/permits-monthly?utm_source=zero.xyz","method":"GET","headers":{},"bodySchema":{"type":"object","$schema":"https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema","required":["input"],"properties":{"input":{"type":"object","required":["type","method"],"properties":{"type":{"type":"string","const":"http"},"method":{"enum":["GET"],"type":"string"},"queryParams":{"type":"object","properties":{"to":{"type":"string","description":"Last month to include, YYYY-MM."},"from":{"type":"string","description":"First month to include, YYYY-MM. Default: 12 months back for one place, 3 months otherwise. from=2024-01 returns the whole history."},"place":{"type":"string","description":"A Valley city, or \"Hidalgo County (unincorporated)\" and the like."},"county":{"enum":["Hidalgo","Cameron","Starr","Willacy"],"type":"string","description":"Hidalgo, Cameron, Starr or Willacy (\"Hidalgo County\" also works)."}}}},"additionalProperties":false},"output":{"type":"object","required":["type"],"properties":{"type":{"type":"string"},"example":{"type":"object","properties":{"note":{"type":"string"},"rows":{"type":"array","items":{"type":"object"}},"query":{"type":"object","properties":{"from":{"type":"string"},"place":{"type":"string"},"county":{"type":"string"}}},"title":{"type":"string"},"fields":{"type":"array","items":{"type":"string"}},"series":{"type":"string"},"source":{"type":"string"},"cadence":{"type":"string"},"returned":{"type":"integer"},"publisher":{"type":"string"},"disclaimer":{"type":"string"},"year_to_date":{"type":"array","items":{"type":"object"}},"months_available":{"type":"array","items":{"type":"string"}},"year_to_date_differs":{"type":"array","items":{"type":"object"}}}}}}}},"responseSchema":{"type":"json","example":{"note":"New privately owned housing units authorized by building permits, as each city or county permit office reported them. A…","rows":[{"as_of":"2026-01-31","month":"2026-01","place":"Brownsville","stale":true,"county":"Cameron","source":"public permit statistics","status":"reported","cadence":"monthly","age_days":245,"units_total":62,"valuation_usd":8942770,"two_unit_units":0,"buildings_total":44,"two_unit_buildings":0,"single_family_units":43,"five_plus_unit_units":19,"three_four_unit_units":0,"single_family_buildings":43,"five_plus_unit_buildings":1,"three_four_unit_buildings":0}],"query":{"from":"2026-01","place":"Brownsville"},"title":"Housing units authorized by permit, by month","fields":["place"],"series":"permits-monthly","source":"public permit statistics","cadence":"monthly","returned":8,"publisher":"Frontera Signal","disclaimer":"Every value carries as_of, age_days, cadence and stale (weekly measures go stale after 14 days, monthly measures after …","year_to_date":[{"year":2026,"as_of":"2026-08-31","place":"Brownsville","stale":false,"county":"Cameron","source":"public permit statistics","cadence":"monthly","through":"2026-08","age_days":33,"units_total":940,"valuation_usd":110314605,"two_unit_units":0,"buildings_total":525,"two_unit_buildings":0,"single_family_units":505,"five_plus_unit_units":427,"three_four_unit_units":8,"single_family_buildings":505,"five_plus_unit_buildings":18,"three_four_unit_buildings":2}],"months_available":["2024-01","2026-08"],"year_to_date_differs":[{"year":2026,"place":"Brownsville","through":"2026-08","monthly_rows":8,"year_to_date_units":940,"sum_of_months_units":768}]}},"example":null,"exampleRequest":null,"tags":["x402"],"displayCostAmount":"0.05","displayCostAsset":"USDC","priceDynamic":false,"priceHint":null,"priceStatus":"priced","priceSource":"probe","requiresHandshake":false,"reviewCount":0,"rating":{"score":"0.00","successRate":"0.00","reviews":0,"stars":null,"state":"unrated"},"availabilityStatus":"unknown","priceObserved":null,"sessionDeposit":null,"pricing":{"kind":"static","summary":"$0.05/call","primary":{"kind":"static","protocol":"x402","network":"base","amountUsd":"0.05","per":"call","confidence":"exact"},"accepted":[{"kind":"static","protocol":"x402","network":"base","amountUsd":"0.05","per":"call","confidence":"exact"}]},"paymentMethods":[{"uid":"pm_lwtmM1O_ogLzIP_wHhzIB","protocol":"x402","methodType":"crypto","chain":"base","mode":"charge","costAmount":"0.05","costPer":"request","priority":0,"asset":"0x833589fCD6eDb6E08f4c7C32D4f71b54bdA02913","unit":"request","depositMicros":null,"planRef":null}],"brandName":null,"brandSlug":null,"brandBaseUrl":null,"brandDocsUrl":null,"whatItDoes":"Returns monthly building permit data (units, valuations, building types) for cities and counties in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas (Hidalgo, Cameron, Starr, Willacy counties).","exampleAgentPrompt":"Pull the monthly building permit data for Brownsville from January 2025 through the most recent available month so I can see how many housing units were authorized and what the total valuation was.","exampleUseCases":[{"title":"Tracking Brownsville housing permit trends","prompt":"Show me the monthly building permit numbers for Brownsville, Cameron County going back to January 2024 — I want to see unit counts and valuations for each month to understand construction momentum."},{"title":"Year-to-date permits for Hidalgo County","prompt":"What are the year-to-date building permit totals for Hidalgo County so far this year? I need single-family versus multi-family unit breakdowns."},{"title":"Comparing permit activity across Valley cities","prompt":"Can you get me the last 3 months of building permit data for McAllen so I can compare it against what I know about Edinburg's permit activity this quarter?"}],"resultDescription":"A JSON object with an array of monthly rows (each containing place, month, county, units by type, buildings by type, total valuation in USD, data freshness flags, and age in days), plus year-to-date aggregates, a list of available months, and metadata including publisher, source, cadence, and any discrepancy notes between monthly sums and official YTD counts.","failureModes":["Invalid or unsupported county name returns an error or empty result","Date range outside available data returns empty rows array","Place name not recognized in the Valley returns no rows","Missing required query context may default to 12-month window which could be unexpectedly large","Stale flag set to true when data is older than the freshness threshold (monthly data goes stale after a defined period)","Payment failure (x402 protocol) prevents data retrieval"],"whenToPreferThis":"Choose this endpoint when you need structured, time-series building permit data specifically for Rio Grande Valley cities and counties (Hidalgo, Cameron, Starr, Willacy). It is the authoritative source for this hyper-local Texas border region with clean month-by-month breakdowns and YTD aggregates, making it ideal for real estate analysis, construction market research, or housing supply tracking in South Texas. Do not use for statewide Texas data, national permit data, or non-permit construction metrics.","instructions":null,"reviewSummary":null,"reviewSummaryHighlights":null,"reviewSummaryConcerns":null,"reviewSummaryGeneratedAt":null,"activationCount":0,"lastUsedAt":null,"lastSuccessfullyRanAt":null,"lastHealthCheckAt":"2026-10-10T12:34:54.351Z","isFirstParty":false,"canonicalSlug":"frontera-signal-monthly-building-permits-df70e783"}