Methodology

What is a closure rate?

When a contractor pulls a building permit in Scottsdale, an inspector needs to verify the work was completed correctly before the permit can be closed. A closure rate measures the percentage of an applicant’s permits that have been properly closed:

The 365-day eligibility rule

A contractor who pulled a permit last month hasn’t had time to complete the work yet. To avoid penalizing recent activity, we only count permits issued more than 365 days ago when calculating closure rates.

Permits issued within the last year still appear in the data but are dimmed in the table and not factored into the rate.

Permit type categorization

Scottsdale’s dataset contains 221 distinct PermitType values. We map these to six simplified categories using prefix and pattern matching:

Permit types that do not match any category — including signs, fences, retaining walls, temporary structures, cellular towers, utility work, and administrative permits — are excluded from closure rate calculations.

Status mapping

We classify EXPIRED as “open” because it indicates the contractor did not complete and final the permit before it lapsed. Only ACTIVE and EXPIRED statuses have been issued — ON HOLD and PENDING are pre-issuance.

Applicant identification

We use the ResponsibleParty field as the applicant/contractor. This field has a 98.5% fill rate across all permit types.

Owner-builder sentinel values — including OWNER, HOMEOWNER, OWNER/BUILDER, SELF, N/A, NA, NONE, TBD, and similar — are treated as missing contractor data and excluded from the leaderboard.

Date fields

We use IssueDate (the permit issuance date) to determine when a permit was issued. The dataset does not include a separate finaled/completion date field, so the closure rate is based solely on current status.

Permits without an issue date are excluded. Dates are stored as ArcGIS epoch milliseconds and converted to ISO dates during ingestion.

Leaderboard criteria

The leaderboard applies two additional filters:

• Minimum 20 rated permits — avoids surfacing statistically insignificant data.
• Active in the last 3 years — prevents the list from being populated by defunct companies.

The leaderboard can be filtered by permit type (e.g., Residential, Commercial, Demolition, Solar, Pool & Spa). When filtered, both thresholds apply only to permits of the selected type.

Median comparison

On applicant detail pages, each closure rate is compared to the median closure rate across all leaderboard-eligible applicants in the same category. This gives context — a 50% closure rate means something different in a category where the median is 40% versus one where it’s 80%.

Medians are calculated from the same pool of applicants who meet the 20-permit minimum threshold.

Data source

Data comes from the Building Permits MapServer table published by the City of Scottsdale Development Services. The dataset covers ~287K permits and is refreshed daily.

Limitations

This site shows permit closure data. It does not evaluate the quality of anyone’s work. There are legitimate reasons a permit may remain open:

• Client non-cooperation — the property owner may fail to schedule the final inspection or grant access.
• Administrative backlog — work may be inspected and approved but not yet updated in the system.
• Project delays — financing, design changes, supply chain issues, or other factors outside the applicant’s control.
• Multi-phase projects — large commercial projects may legitimately take years to complete.
• Permit holder vs. contractor — the applicant may be a GC, architect, or owner — not necessarily the person scheduling the inspection.

If you believe there are inaccuracies in the underlying permit data, contact the City of Scottsdale Development Services at .