What re-roofs in Cambridge, MA declared on their permits

In 2025, 162 re-roof permits in Cambridge passed our filters. The middle half declared between $9,652 and $22,344, and the median was $15,125. The 2025 median of $15,125 falls inside our guide range of $7,000 to $15,500.

Source: Roof - Building Permit, data.cambridgema.gov. Retrieved October 8, 2026. Latest permit in the extract: 2026-10-07.

Cambridge, 2025: re-roof permits declared a median of $15,125; the middle half declared $9,652 to $22,344. Our guide range is $7,000 to $15,500.Our guide range $7,000 to $15,500median $15,125$9,652$22,344$0$5k$10k$15k$20k$25k
  • Middle half of permits
  • Median
  • Our guide range, 2,000 sq ft asphalt

Declared cost on the permit application is not the contract price. It is what the applicant wrote on the form. It can sit below the signed contract, and permits do not say how big the roof was. Read it as the spread of real jobs, not as a quote.

Year by year, 2018 to 2026

Each bar runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile of declared cost. The dark tick is the median. The grey band is our guide range, the national base, because we have no city index for Cambridge.

Declared value of re-roof permits in Cambridge by year: middle half of permits and the median, against our guide range $7,000 to $15,500Our guide range$0$5k$10k$15k$20k$25k$30k20182018: middle half $7,697 to $14,325, median $9,900, 92 permitsn 9220192019: middle half $8,962 to $16,862, median $11,270, 210 permitsn 21020202020: middle half $8,253 to $18,648, median $13,075, 174 permitsn 17420212021: middle half $8,105 to $18,500, median $12,987, 208 permitsn 20820222022: middle half $8,925 to $24,090, median $15,371, 179 permitsn 17920232023: middle half $10,162 to $24,271, median $15,450, 195 permitsn 19520242024: middle half $9,000 to $24,715, median $14,085, 174 permitsn 17420252025: middle half $9,652 to $22,344, median $15,125, 162 permitsn 16220262026 so far: middle half $10,088 to $26,007, median $18,284, 146 permitsn 146*

* 2026 is not finished: the portal data runs to 2026-10-07.

Declared cost of re-roof permits
YearPermits25th pctMedian75th pct
2026*146$10,088$18,284$26,007
2025162$9,652$15,125$22,344
2024174$9,000$14,085$24,715
2023195$10,162$15,450$24,271
2022179$8,925$15,371$24,090
2021208$8,105$12,987$18,500
2020174$8,253$13,075$18,648
2019210$8,962$11,270$16,862
201892$7,697$9,900$14,325

Against our price guide

The 2025 median of $15,125 falls inside our guide range of $7,000 to $15,500. The two figures answer different questions: ours is a modelled price for a 2,000 sq ft asphalt roof, the permit figure is a declared value on real jobs of mixed size.

FigureLowTypicalHigh
Cambridge permits, 2025 (25th pct, median, 75th pct)$9,652$15,125$22,344
Our guide, 2,000 sq ft asphalt, national base (no city index)$7,000–$15,500

What the permit file says

  • In 2025, Cambridge issued 162 re-roof permits that passed our filters.
  • Half of them declared between $9,652 and $22,344.
  • The median declared value in 2025 was $15,125.
  • The top quarter of permits declared $22,344 or more, 2.3 times the figure for the bottom quarter ($9,652 or less).
  • Across all published years the file holds 1,540 permits for Cambridge.
  • The busiest published year was 2019 with 210 permits.
  • The portal is Roof - Building Permit on data.cambridgema.gov; the city updated it on October 8, 2026.
  • The latest permit in the extract was issued on October 7, 2026.
  • 59 percent of the permit rows matching a roof word survived our filters (2,603 matches, 1,540 kept).
  • Our guide range for a 2,000 sq ft asphalt roof is $7,000 to $15,500 (national base; we have no city index for Cambridge).
  • The median moved from $9,900 in 2018 to $15,125 in 2025, up 53 percent.
  • 2026 so far: 146 permits, median $18,284 (data through October 7, 2026).

Scope in this city: dedicated roof permits, one- or two-family use.

How we counted

We took every permit row whose description matches a re-roof pattern, dropped rows about repairs, solar panels, additions, new buildings and other trades, kept declared costs from $1,000 to $150,000, and counted each permit number once. 2,603 rows matched a roof word and 1,540 remained (59 percent). The classifier is approximate: some re-roofs bundled with other work are excluded, and a few mislabelled rows remain. A year appears only with at least 30 permits.

Data: Roof - Building Permit (data.cambridgema.gov). License: Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License.

Questions

What did re-roof permits in Cambridge declare in 2025?

162 permits passed our filters. The median declared value was $15,125, and half of the permits declared $9,652 to $22,344.

Is the permit value what the roofer charged?

Not necessarily. The value is the cost the applicant declared on the permit application. It can differ from the signed contract, and it is not an invoice. Use it to see the spread of real jobs, and get written quotes for your own roof.

How does this compare with your cost guide for Cambridge?

The 2025 median of $15,125 falls inside our guide range of $7,000 to $15,500. The two figures answer different questions: ours is a modelled price for a 2,000 sq ft asphalt roof, the permit figure is a declared value on real jobs of mixed size.

Where does the data come from?

From the city's open-data portal, Roof - Building Permit (data.cambridgema.gov, dataset 79ih-g44d), retrieved October 8, 2026. We keep permits with a re-roof description, drop repairs, solar, additions and new builds, keep declared values between $1,000 and $150,000, and count each permit number once.

Why are some years missing?

We publish a year only when it has at least 30 permits after filtering, and the current year is marked as partial until the portal has data past mid-December.

Planning a re-roof in Cambridge? Describe the job once and we send it to one local roofer, not five.

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Information, not a quote or professional advice. Permit data belongs to each city and is shown as published.