Almost no development occurs in the United States without a permit. In 2024 alone, local building departments authorized about 1.48 million new privately owned housing units, worth more than $384 billion, and that total does not include the office buildings, storefronts, additions, and renovations that are applied for across the same counters every day (U.S. Census Bureau 2024). Permitting is where growth actually starts, and it is also where growth can stall.
See my Planetizen blogpost at: https://www.planetizen.com/blogs/138425-ai-really-panacea-our-permitting-woes
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. October 21, 2025. New high-rise buildings under construction in Metropolitan Honolulu, Hawaii. (Theodore Trimmer)