What Newport Beach homeowners are building right now
Every residential building permit the city issued in the thirty days to October 12, 2026, read as a whole: 272 permits at 243 properties, $39.6 million of declared work. Updated monthly.
- Permits issued
- 272
- Properties
- 243
- Declared value
- $39.6 million
- Median permit
- $25,000
- Owner-builder properties
- 25 of 243
- Contractors on the permits
- 150
A city of remodels, paid for by a handful of new homes
Count the permits and Newport Beach is a remodeling town: 119 of the 272 permits in the window, 44 percent of everything issued, were additions and alterations. Count the money and it is a new-home town: 13 ground-up houses carried $25.2 million, 64 percent of all declared value, with a median of $1,151,200 and the largest at $11,780,064. The 119 remodels together declared $7.8 million, a fifth of the total.
The 11 whole-building demolitions declared just $166,000 between them. Tearing a house down is cheap. The teardown is the leading indicator: each one is a new-home permit a few months out.
Thirty days of residential permits, by kind of work
| Kind of work | Permits | Declared value | Median permit |
|---|---|---|---|
| New homesGround-up single-family and duplex construction | 13 | $25,207,129 | $1,151,200 |
| Additions & remodelsAdditions, interior alterations, ADUs, structural work | 119 | $7,822,820 | $25,000 |
| Site workRetaining walls, block walls, grading, shoring | 32 | $2,796,114 | $8,200 |
| Re-roofsExpress re-roof permits | 38 | $1,243,434 | $25,000 |
| Pools & spasNew pools, replasters, remodels | 17 | $1,015,674 | $50,000 |
| Solar & storageRooftop PV and batteries | 28 | $921,007 | $30,525 |
| Docks & seawallsFloating docks, piers, seawalls | 4 | $343,000 | $51,500 |
| DemolitionWhole-building teardowns | 11 | $166,000 | $15,000 |
| Windows & doorsExpress change-outs | 8 | $48,700 | $4,300 |
| Re-pipesExpress whole-house re-pipes | 2 | $26,900 | $13,450 |
| All residential | 272 | $39,590,778 | $25,000 |
Declared value is the job cost the applicant entered on the permit application. It sets the permit fee; it is not a contract price, and it runs low.
What a remodel is declared to cost, and why that is low
Across the 119 addition-and-alteration permits, a quarter declared under $12,000, half under $25,000, three-quarters under $53,170, and one in ten over $166,540. The largest single remodel declared $921,375. 102 of the 243 properties, 42 percent, declared less than $25,000 in total.
Read those figures for what they are. The declared value is the applicant’s own job-cost estimate, entered to set the permit fee. It is not a contract price, and it runs low: a full kitchen replacement in Orange County runs $60,000 to $120,000, yet the median addition-or-alteration permit declares $25,000. Budget from the contract, not the permit, and on a house from the 1960s add the ten to fifteen percent contingency that opening walls here reliably earns.
The other kinds of work are steadier. Pools and spas declared a median of $50,000, with the middle half between $45,000 and $80,000. Re-roofs were the most common express permit, 38 of them, at a median of $25,000 and a middle half of $18,000 to $38,000; tile relays with new underlayment and ember-resistant vents sit at the top. Solar with battery storage ran 28 permits at a median of $30,525, most between $19,800 and $42,000.
Where the work is
Mariners and Dover Shores led the city with 40 properties under permit: 1960s bayfront and bluff homes, many built one-off rather than to a tract plan, with original systems reaching the end of their life. That is where remodel demand concentrates, and the $1.2 million declared there is spread across many modest jobs. Corona del Mar Village is the opposite case: 16 properties but $5.0 million, because on a village lot the project is often a teardown and a new house. Newport Hills, Harbor View and Central Newport carried the next largest sums.
| Neighborhood | Properties | Declared value |
|---|---|---|
| Mariners / Dover Shores | 40 | $1,193,892 |
| Superior Heights | 19 | $584,034 |
| Corona del Mar Village | 16 | $4,992,374 |
| Newport Hills | 14 | $2,383,091 |
| East Bluff | 14 | $385,425 |
| Harbor View | 13 | $1,823,867 |
| Newport Heights | 12 | $428,540 |
| Central Newport | 10 | $2,171,067 |
| Lido Island | 9 | $702,062 |
| Harbor Ridge | 9 | $992,695 |
The ten neighborhoods with the most permitted properties, as the city’s own map layer assigns them. The neighborhood tells you what is being built, not what you can borrow: the requirements for a home equity line are the same at every address in Newport Beach.
Who pulls the permits
150 different contractors were named on the permits; 37 of them pulled two or more in the window, and 142 match an active Contractors State License Board record by name. 25 properties, about one in ten, were permitted by the homeowner as owner-builder, for $7.5 million of declared work, including three of the 13 new homes. 18 properties carried more than one permit in the window, which usually means a project bigger than any single permit shows.
The distinction matters for how the work gets paid for. A contractor job runs on a deposit schedule: a deposit at signing, the bulk mid-project, the balance at completion. An owner-builder pays trades as the work moves. Both are better served by knowing the funding before the first check than by discovering the overrun at the second. The city issued between 61 and 75 residential permits every week of the window, so none of this is seasonal; it is the steady state.
How this work gets funded
A home equity line of credit leaves any first mortgage untouched, which is the point for a Newport Beach owner holding a low-rate first. You draw what the project needs as it moves rather than taking a lump sum, and if deposits are already on a card, those balances may be paid off directly at closing if the lender’s system marks them eligible.
What rarely works well is contractor point-of-sale financing. The dealer fee is embedded in the price rather than itemized, so ask for the cash price; if it differs from the financed price, you have found the fee. A line is not tied to one contractor, and the amount available depends on your equity, credit, existing liens and debt-to-income, the same at every address in the city.
If you are a contractor working in the book above, the contractors page explains how a home equity line compares with dealer financing for a client facing an overrun.
About this data
Every residential building permit the City of Newport Beach issued from September 12, 2026 to October 12, 2026, read from the city’s public permit portal and its building-permit map layer on October 12, 2026, then joined to the Contractors State License Board’s license records for the contractors named on them. Commercial permits were removed by permit type and by the city’s own residential-or-commercial prefix in the scope of work. One property is one entry; a house with several permits is counted once, with its values added.
Declared value is the job cost the applicant entered on the application, used to set the permit fee. It is not an appraisal and not a contract price. The city’s map layer carries active permits only, so a permit issued and finaled inside the window would be missing; measured attrition inside the first ninety days is under ten percent. Figures are published as totals, counts and medians only. No address, owner or contractor is identified on this page.
Sources: City of Newport Beach permit portal; CSLB license check. Checked October 2026. Refreshed monthly.
Newport Beach permits: questions
In the thirty days to October 12, 2026 the city issued 272 residential building permits at 243 properties, between 61 and 75 a week. That excludes commercial work. The declared value of the work was $39.6 million, with a median permit of $25,000.
Of 119 addition-and-alteration permits, a quarter declared under $12,000, half under $25,000, three-quarters under $53,170, and one in ten over $166,540; the largest declared $921,375. Declared values are the applicant’s estimate for the permit fee and typically sit well below the contract price, so budget from the contract, not the permit.
The 17 pool and spa permits in the window declared a median of $50,000, with the middle half between $45,000 and $80,000. Gas and electrical to an outdoor kitchen, drainage and hardscape are often permitted separately and add to the real figure.
Re-roofs were the most common express permit: 38 in thirty days, with a median declared value of $25,000 and the middle half between $18,000 and $38,000. Tile relays with new underlayment and ember-resistant vents sit at the top of that range.
25 of the 243 properties, about one in ten, were permitted by the homeowner as owner-builder rather than by a licensed contractor, for $7.5 million of declared work. Owner-builders pay trades as the work moves, which is a different funding pattern from a contractor’s deposit schedule.
A home equity line is not tied to a permit, and you do not need one to apply. Work that was never permitted, though, generally is not counted in the home’s value, which can mean a lower number than you expect. If you have converted space or an addition, check that it was permitted and recorded.
From the City of Newport Beach’s public permit portal and its building-permit map layer, read for every residential permit issued in the window and joined to the Contractors State License Board’s license records for the contractors named on them. Figures are published as totals and medians only; no address, owner or contractor is identified. The page is refreshed monthly.
These are the requirements for the home equity line we place. Other lenders set their own guidelines, and some are more flexible.
Fund the project without touching your mortgage
Know your number before you sign the contract.