Tempe building & ADU permits
Recent permit activity, updated continuously.
Tempe sits in the Phoenix metro and is home to Arizona State University's main campus. Under Arizona's 2024 reforms (HB 2720 and HB 2721), larger cities must allow ADUs and middle housing — and Tempe publishes its permits as open ArcGIS data under CC BY 4.0, which Igni surfaces with the required © City of Tempe attribution.
Igni is tracking 2,903 residential and building permits in Tempe, AZ — including 53 classified accessory-dwelling-unit (ADU) filings. The most active ZIP is 85282. The most recent filing Igni tracked was Oct 30, 2026. All records come from City of Tempe ArcGIS open data (Esri), an official government open-data feed, and are refreshed continuously.
2903
Permits tracked
53
ADU permits
5
Distinct ZIP codes
Oct 30, 2026
Newest permit
Recent permits
A sample of the freshest permits in this jurisdiction — ZIP and city only (no street addresses).
| ZIP | Permit type | ADU type | Valuation | Applied |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 85282 | Other | — | $93,000 | Jul 30, 2026 |
| 85282 | Other | — | $6,560,884 | Aug 25, 2026 |
| 85282 | Residential | — | $20,000 | Oct 7, 2026 |
| 85281 | Commercial | — | $12,000 | Jun 23, 2026 |
| 85283 | Other | — | $8,200 | Jul 28, 2026 |
| 85281 | Residential | Attached ADU | $500 | Sep 18, 2026 |
| 85281 | Other | — | $9,000 | Sep 21, 2026 |
| 85288 | Other | — | $85,428 | Oct 6, 2026 |
| 85284 | Other | — | $10,000 | Oct 7, 2026 |
| 85282 | Other | — | $5,000 | Oct 13, 2026 |
| 85281 | Residential | — | $5,000 | Oct 20, 2026 |
| 85281 | Commercial | — | $20,000 | Oct 27, 2026 |
| 85281 | Residential | — | $2,000 | Oct 29, 2026 |
| 85282 | Residential | — | $500 | Oct 29, 2026 |
| 85283 | Residential | — | $30,000 | May 15, 2026 |
| 85284 | Commercial | — | $135,000 | Aug 7, 2026 |
| 85282 | Commercial | — | $341,250 | Aug 13, 2026 |
| 85281 | Commercial | — | $823,560 | Aug 18, 2026 |
| 85281 | Other | — | $66,867 | Aug 25, 2026 |
| 85284 | Residential | — | $37,588 | Oct 20, 2026 |
Top ZIP codes by recent activity
ADU types in the recent set
Permit activity in Tempe
Igni counted 2,480 permits issued in Tempe over the last 12 months (Oct 2025 – Sep 2026) — up 7.5% on the 2,308 in the 12 months before. The forecast expects about 1,242 over the next 6 months.
Forecast: trailing mean, typical error ±12% in backtests one to six months ahead. How we forecast
| Permit type | Last 12 months | Year over year | Forecast, next 6 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| All permits | 2,480 | Up 7.5% | ≈ 1,242 |
| Residential building | 1,489 | Up 5.8% | ≈ 744 |
| Commercial building | 503 | Up 3.9% | ≈ 252 |
| Trade (electrical, plumbing, mechanical) | 230 | Up 19.8% | ≈ 114 |
| ADU | 66 | — | — |
Monthly figures
| Month | Permits | 10th–90th percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2023 | 158 | — |
| Nov 2023 | 138 | — |
| Dec 2023 | 125 | — |
| Jan 2024 | 164 | — |
| Feb 2024 | 146 | — |
| Mar 2024 | 152 | — |
| Apr 2024 | 166 | — |
| May 2024 | 206 | — |
| Jun 2024 | 165 | — |
| Jul 2024 | 170 | — |
| Aug 2024 | 197 | — |
| Sep 2024 | 155 | — |
| Oct 2024 | 210 | — |
| Nov 2024 | 161 | — |
| Dec 2024 | 181 | — |
| Jan 2025 | 210 | — |
| Feb 2025 | 229 | — |
| Mar 2025 | 196 | — |
| Apr 2025 | 221 | — |
| May 2025 | 198 | — |
| Jun 2025 | 185 | — |
| Jul 2025 | 167 | — |
| Aug 2025 | 183 | — |
| Sep 2025 | 167 | — |
| Oct 2025 | 225 | — |
| Nov 2025 | 207 | — |
| Dec 2025 | 211 | — |
| Jan 2026 | 173 | — |
| Feb 2026 | 162 | — |
| Mar 2026 | 219 | — |
| Apr 2026 | 247 | — |
| May 2026 | 182 | — |
| Jun 2026 | 210 | — |
| Jul 2026 | 194 | — |
| Aug 2026 | 222 | — |
| Sep 2026 | 228 | — |
| Oct 2026 (forecast) | ≈ 207 | 174–255 |
| Nov 2026 (forecast) | ≈ 207 | 174–252 |
| Dec 2026 (forecast) | ≈ 207 | 174–254 |
| Jan 2027 (forecast) | ≈ 207 | 174–256 |
| Feb 2027 (forecast) | ≈ 207 | 180–257 |
| Mar 2027 (forecast) | ≈ 207 | 182–261 |
Counts are permits issued per calendar month as Tempe publishes them to its open-data feed — not a complete census; a change in what the city publishes moves them too. The current month is left out, and the most recent months are provisional. A forecast is a statistical estimate with a range, not a prediction for any project. Informational only.
How long do permits take in Tempe?
Based on 6,099 Tempe permits applied for between Nov 2023 and Aug 2026, the typical (median) permit was issued 21 days after application, and the middle half of permits took 4–57 days. One in ten took longer than 118 days.
| Permit type | Median | Typical range | Permits |
|---|---|---|---|
| All permits | 21 days | 4–57 days | 6,099 |
| Residential building | 12 days | 1–37 days | 3,520 |
| Commercial building | 56 days | 27–91 days | 1,319 |
| Trade (electrical, plumbing, mechanical) | 19 days | 2–43 days | 672 |
| ADU | 81 days | 49–138 days | 98 |
Typical, not guaranteed: individual permits vary with project scope, application completeness and plan-review workload. Days are calendar days from application to issuance; applications still pending are counted as not-yet-issued rather than dropped. Informational only, not legal advice. How we calculate approval times.
Housing law — Arizona
Arizona's HB 2720 (2024) requires municipalities with more than 75,000 residents to permit at least one accessory dwelling unit on lots where single-family homes are allowed; cities that did not adopt conforming rules by January 1, 2025 must allow ADUs on all residential lots.
Arizona's HB 2721 (2024) requires cities over 75,000 to allow 'middle housing' — duplexes through fourplexes and townhomes — by right near central business districts, with compliance by January 1, 2026. A separate 'Starter Homes Act' did not become law (vetoed in 2024, stalled in 2025).
Tempe ADU rules
Tempe updated its accessory dwelling unit ('casita') rules to comply with Arizona's House Bill 2720, the 2024 state law (effective January 1, 2025) requiring cities of more than 75,000 residents to allow ADUs on single-family lots. Under the city's Zoning and Development Code, a single-family lot may add at least one attached and one detached ADU, and the city cannot impose standards on an ADU that are more restrictive than those for a single-family home in the same district.
State law shapes the key numbers: a municipality may not require additional off-street parking for an ADU or impose an owner-occupancy mandate, and the largest setback a city can require is five feet. Tempe limits an ADU to no more than two bedrooms and ties its height to the underlying zone (typically around 30 feet). ADU size scales with the main dwelling — on larger lots of an acre or more, for example, an ADU is capped at 75 percent of the home's interior habitable area or 2,000 square feet, whichever is less — with smaller caps on smaller lots.
Because HB 2720 makes a code-compliant ADU an administrative, by-right approval, a conforming casita in Tempe is reviewed through the building permit rather than a discretionary hearing. The city publishes an ADU resource page outlining the standards and process.
This is an informational summary — verify current rules with the city's planning/permitting department; not legal advice.
See also: Arizona ADU law and what is an ADU?
Data source
Sourced from City of Tempe ArcGIS open data (Esri). CC BY 4.0.
Attribution: © City of Tempe (CC BY 4.0)
Nearby cities — Arizona
Learn more about ADUs & building permits
Background reading on accessory dwelling units, building permits, and how Igni turns Tempe permit records into leads.
Tempe permit data — FAQ
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Informational only, not legal advice. Headline counts reflect all permits Igni has tracked for this jurisdiction; the table shows recent activity. Housing law changes — verify current statutes before relying on this.