Baltimore County issued or accepted 18,998 building and trade permits in the first six months of 2026. Every one of them is a public record: an address, a scope of work, and a homeowner who decided to spend money on their property. This report is what all of that filing activity looks like in aggregate.
January was the quietest month at 2,581 permits. April was the peak at 3,616, a 40% climb, and volume held near 3,300 a month through the end of Q2.
Classifying every permit by the trades involved (a permit can involve more than one), electrical work appears on 6,672 permits, more than any other trade. Plumbing, HVAC, and gas each cleared 4,300.
994 permits in the first half were explicitly for constructing a new dwelling: single family homes, townhomes, and manufactured homes. The pace held steady between 137 and 191 a month, in winter as much as spring. Builders file year-round, and every one of those filings is an address where a new roof, an empty yard, and a first-time-in-the-house owner are about to appear. New construction seeds the next few years of work for the finishing trades.
Most permits resolve to a specific parcel, which lets us join each one to its county property records: assessed value, year built, land use, and whether the owner lives there. Across all 242,938 residential parcels in Baltimore County, the median home was built in 1962, is assessed at $295,100, and 79% are owner-occupied. The properties pulling permits look different, and they look different by trade.
| Trade | Permits on residential parcels | Median year built | Median assessed value | vs county median | Owner-occupied |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solar | 1,019 | 1978 | $376,100 | +27% | 94% |
| Structural | 715 | 1959 | $408,900 | +39% | 81% |
| Interior remodel | 745 | 1960 | $343,400 | +16% | 57% |
| Electrical | 3,969 | 1964 | $338,400 | +15% | 86% |
| Deck & patio | 837 | 1976 | $331,400 | +12% | 62% |
| Plumbing | 3,269 | 1960 | $310,600 | +5% | 76% |
| Gas | 2,983 | 1960 | $309,400 | +5% | 87% |
| HVAC | 2,809 | 1963 | $306,300 | +4% | 91% |
| Accessory structure | 561 | 1972 | $281,100 | -5% | 46% |
| County baseline (all residential parcels) | 1962 | $295,100 | — | 79% | |
Residential parcels only, trades with at least 200 matched permits. Assessed values are county assessments, not market prices. Owner-occupied means the tax bill mails to the property address.
Solar goes on newer, higher-value homes where the owner lives: built 1978, assessed 27% above the county median, 94% owner-occupied. The core repair trades live in the older housing stock: the median home pulling a plumbing, gas, or HVAC permit was built around 1960. If you sell home services in Baltimore County, the age of the housing stock in a neighborhood tells you which pitch fits.
The owner-occupied column tells its own story. Solar, HVAC, and gas work happens at homes where the owner answers the door, so a letter to the property address reaches the decision maker. Interior remodels (57%) and accessory structures (46%) run far below the 79% county baseline: a large share of that work is investor and landlord driven. Those customers hire repeatedly, but they do not live at the job site, so reaching them means the owner's mailing address, not the property's.
1,150 solar permits were filed in the first half, 259 of them in a January spike, then a steady rhythm of roughly 165 to 190 a month. 93% of filings state a system size. The median system is 11.4 kW.
Every trade has a season, and the permits date-stamp it. HVAC filings nearly doubled from January to April: replacement season starts before the first heat wave, not during it. Pools spike in April because homeowners file in spring to swim by summer. Decks build all spring to a June peak. Solar is the exception: a steady 165 to 190 filings a month, season-proof.
| Trade | Quiet month | Peak month | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pool & spa | Feb (21) | Apr (59) | +181% |
| HVAC | Jan (515) | Apr (981) | +90% |
| Gas | Jan (512) | Mar (901) | +76% |
| Deck & patio | Jan (177) | Jun (289) | +63% |
| Accessory structure | Jan (180) | Mar (289) | +61% |
| Structural | Jan (173) | Apr (269) | +56% |
| Plumbing | Feb (732) | Mar (1,078) | +47% |
| Interior remodel | Jan (183) | Mar (258) | +41% |
| Electrical | Jan (980) | Apr (1,260) | +29% |
| Solar | Steady all half: 165 to 190 filings a month | ||
Homeowners decide before they file, and they file before the season peaks. If your trade peaks in April, the mailbox window is February and March. Marketing that starts when you get busy is marketing that lands after your competitors already won the job.
Tradewinds turns Maryland permit filings into warm, addressable leads for contractors. New filings land daily, matched to the property and the homeowner.
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