Roof replacement cost in San Francisco

In San Francisco, the median declared value on 15046 roof replacement permits issued 2022-01-02 to 2026-10-30 was $15,600, according to Building Permits (DBI) permit data (checked 2026-11-02).

n = 15046 permits

Median$15,600

25th percentile$11,300

75th percentile$22,000

Roof replacement cost in San Francisco: permit figures

15046 permits · 2022-01-02 to 2026-10-30 · Building Permits (DBI)
Figure	Value
Median	$15,600
25th percentile	$11,300
75th percentile	$22,000

How this was counted

What a roof replacement permit usually covers

Tearing off and replacing roofing on a house. Tearing off old roofing and installing new roofing material over the roof deck. Replacing rotten sheathing, gutters, skylights and solar removal are often extra and may not show in the declared value.

Roof replacement in San Francisco compared with other places

Among the 4 places where we have roof replacement figures, San Francisco has the median at position 3 from lowest. Lower medians: Los Angeles, Sacramento. Higher medians: Santa Monica.

Read this first. Permit values are self-reported by the applicant to set permit fees. They often leave out materials or labor, and they are not what the contractor actually charged. A quote above or below this range can be reasonable.

About this San Francisco sample

15046 permits after dropping $0 or blank values (0% of keyword matches had no cost)
cost field estimated_cost in Building Permits (DBI)
permits issued 2022-01-02 to 2026-10-30

Roof replacement permits in San Francisco by year

3,977 of these permits were issued in 2024, the busiest year in this sample. Counting only full years, the number of permits went up in 2023, then up in 2024, then down in 2025. The median declared value went about the same in 2023, then about the same in 2024, then about the same in 2025. 2022 and 2026 are partial years here, so their counts are lower.

Roof replacement permits and median in San Francisco by year
Year issued	Permits	Median
2022	2,572	$15,000
2023	3,167	$15,400
2024	3,977	$15,835
2025	3,664	$15,900
2026	1,666	$16,000

By month issued, the busiest months were August, June, October, and the quietest were December, November, July.

What the San Francisco roof replacement permits describe

We read the description each applicant wrote, leave out the standard wording the city adds to every permit, and sort the permit by the words it uses. The permit type the city chose is not used here. Where the description does not say, we count it as not stated. The most common kind here is reroof, method not given.

Reroof, method not given: 7,341 permits (49%), median $16,000
Tear-off and new roof: 7,195 permits (48%), median $15,000
Overlay: 100 permits (1%), median $15,000
Repair: 56 permits (0%), median $10,000
Not stated in the description: 354 permits (2%), median $15,994

Other work listed on the same San Francisco permits

Out of 15,023 San Francisco roof replacement permits with a description of their own, 146 (1.0%) also mention structural or framing; 17 (0.1%) also mention plumbing; 12 (0.1%) also mention windows or doors; 3 (0.0%) also mention electrical work; 1 (0.0%) also mention mechanical or HVAC.

How we matched roof replacement permits in San Francisco

We count a permit when the San Francisco dataset’s reroof flag is set to yes. We leave out permits whose description mentions roof decks, rooftop decks, solar, solar panels, roof-mounted equipment, new homes and buildings, additions or ADUs. We keep only permits for homes, not commercial buildings, and only permits with a declared value above $0.

Counted from the same 15046 permits as the figures above (2022-01-02 to 2026-10-30). Source: Building Permits (DBI).

Updated 2026-11-02