What re-roofs in Seattle, WA declared on their permits

Short answer: In 2025 Seattle issued 254 re-roof permits with a median declared cost of $16,820, above our $7,000 to $15,500 guide range (+50% against its midpoint). Declared cost is not the contract price.

958 permits in all, from Building Permits. Scope: permit type Roof, single-family and duplex.

Source: cos-data.seattle.gov. Retrieved October 9, 2026.

Seattle, 2025: re-roof permits declared a median of $16,820; the middle half declared $13,025 to $22,550. Our guide range is $7,000 to $15,500.Our guide range $7,000 to $15,500median $16,820$13,025$22,550$0$5k$10k$15k$20k$25k$30k
  • 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, 2020 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 Seattle.

Declared value of re-roof permits in Seattle 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$30k20202020: middle half $10,723 to $17,686, median $12,939, 37 permitsn 3720212021: middle half $13,989 to $25,177, median $19,004, 102 permitsn 10220222022: middle half $13,950 to $24,876, median $20,000, 111 permitsn 11120232023: middle half $13,529 to $23,467, median $18,656, 97 permitsn 9720242024: middle half $15,775 to $26,904, median $20,176, 164 permitsn 16420252025: middle half $13,025 to $22,550, median $16,820, 254 permitsn 25420262026 so far: middle half $14,885 to $25,000, median $19,854, 193 permitsn 193*

The biggest rise in permit counts came from 2020 to 2021: 37 to 102, +176%. The biggest fall came from 2022 to 2023: 111 to 97, -13%. The median declared cost went from $12,939 in 2020 to $16,820 in 2025, +30% over 5 years. The highest yearly median, $20,176, was in 2024.

* 2026 is not finished: the portal data runs to 2026-10-05.

Declared cost of re-roof permits
YearPermits25th pctMedian75th pctMedian vs guide
2026*193$14,885$19,854$25,000+76%
2025254$13,025$16,820$22,550+50%
2024164$15,775$20,176$26,904+79%
202397$13,529$18,656$23,467+66%
2022111$13,950$20,000$24,876+78%
2021102$13,989$19,004$25,177+69%
202037$10,723$12,939$17,686+15%

Years with fewer than 30 permits are not shown.

The gap to our price guide

The 2025 median of $16,820 sits above our guide range of $7,000 to $15,500. Ours is a modelled price for a 2,000 sq ft asphalt roof; the permit figure is what applicants declared on real jobs, where roof size, material and bundled work are not recorded.

Permit median, 2025$16,820Middle half $13,025 to $22,550
Our guide range$7,000 to $15,5002,000 sq ft asphalt, national base (no city index)
Gap$1,320above the high end of our range; +50% against the midpoint of $11,250

The last column of the year table compares each year’s median with today’s midpoint; the guide is not adjusted back in time.

When Seattle pulls re-roof permits

Of 529 permits issued in 2022, 2024 and 2025, 63 (12 percent) came in August, the busiest month. The quietest, January, had 27, 2.3 times fewer. June to August together hold 32 percent.

Seattle: re-roof permits by issue month, pooled. Busiest August, quietest January.020406080January: 27 permits, 5.1% of the pooled totalJFebruary: 33 permits, 6.2% of the pooled totalFMarch: 39 permits, 7.4% of the pooled totalMApril: 48 permits, 9.1% of the pooled totalAMay: 49 permits, 9.3% of the pooled totalMJune: 56 permits, 10.6% of the pooled totalJJuly: 49 permits, 9.3% of the pooled totalJAugust: 63 permits, 11.9% of the pooled totalA63September: 54 permits, 10.2% of the pooled totalSOctober: 49 permits, 9.3% of the pooled totalONovember: 29 permits, 5.5% of the pooled totalNDecember: 33 permits, 6.2% of the pooled totalD
Permits by issue month, 2022, 2024 and 2025 pooled
MonthPermitsShare
January275.1%
February336.2%
March397.4%
April489.1%
May499.3%
June5610.6%
July499.3%
August6311.9%
September5410.2%
October499.3%
November295.5%
December336.2%

Where in Seattle the re-roofs are

98115 leads with 62 permits in 2023 to 2025, 17 percent of the 368 across 12 areas; the top three hold 40 percent. Highest median: 98125, $21,273 on 41 permits. Lowest: 98103, $15,387 on 38, a 1.4-fold spread.

Top 10 areas by permits, 2023 to 2025
Zip codePermitsShareMedianAgainst guide midpoint
98115 6216.8%$17,198+53%
98118 4412.0%$20,000+78%
98125 4111.1%$21,273+89%
98117 3910.6%$18,000+60%
98103 3810.3%$15,387+37%
98126 236.2%$16,700+48%
98122 226.0%$16,800+49%
98106 215.7%$16,100+43%
98133 215.7%$18,126+61%
98116 205.4%$17,755+58%

Area = ZIP code as the portal records it; 92 percent of permits carry one. Areas under 10 permits are left out. No addresses are stored.

What the permit file says

  • The top quarter of permits declared $22,550 or more, 1.7 times the figure for the bottom quarter ($13,025 or less).
  • Across all published years the file holds 958 permits for Seattle.
  • The busiest published year was 2025 with 254 permits.
  • 2026 so far: 193 permits, median $19,854 (data through October 5, 2026).

How Seattle’s numbers were counted

2,017 rows matched a roof word and 973 remained (48 percent). The filters and their limits are on the permit data overview. A year appears only with at least 30 permits.

Data: Building Permits (cos-data.seattle.gov). City of Seattle License: Public Domain.

Questions

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

254 permits passed our filters. The median declared value was $16,820, and half of the permits declared $13,025 to $22,550.

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 Seattle?

The 2025 median of $16,820 sits above our guide range of $7,000 to $15,500. Ours is a modelled price for a 2,000 sq ft asphalt roof; the permit figure is what applicants declared on real jobs, where roof size, material and bundled work are not recorded.

Where does the data come from?

From the city's open-data portal, Building Permits (cos-data.seattle.gov, dataset 76t5-zqzr), retrieved October 9, 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 Seattle? Describe the job once and we send it to one local roofer, not five.

Start an inspection request

Other cities

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