# Frontera Signal Monthly Building Permits

> Frontera Signal Monthly Building Permits is a paid API for AI agents from fronterasignal.com, paid per call via x402, $0.05/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-10-10).

Returns monthly building permit data (units, valuations, building types) for cities and counties in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas (Hidalgo, Cameron, Starr, Willacy counties).

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://fronterasignal.com/api/v1/series/permits-monthly?utm_source=zero.xyz
- Price: $0.05/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-10-10
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/frontera-signal-monthly-building-permits-df70e783
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_tUfcehWmXNPR_Oa3uX3WZ

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability frontera-signal-monthly-building-permits-df70e783
```

Example prompt: Pull the monthly building permit data for Brownsville from January 2025 through the most recent available month so I can see how many housing units were authorized and what the total valuation was.

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need structured, time-series building permit data specifically for Rio Grande Valley cities and counties (Hidalgo, Cameron, Starr, Willacy). It is the authoritative source for this hyper-local Texas border region with clean month-by-month breakdowns and YTD aggregates, making it ideal for real estate analysis, construction market research, or housing supply tracking in South Texas. Do not use for statewide Texas data, national permit data, or non-permit construction metrics.

## Known failure modes

- Invalid or unsupported county name returns an error or empty result
- Date range outside available data returns empty rows array
- Place name not recognized in the Valley returns no rows
- Missing required query context may default to 12-month window which could be unexpectedly large
- Stale flag set to true when data is older than the freshness threshold (monthly data goes stale after a defined period)
- Payment failure (x402 protocol) prevents data retrieval

## How this service works

Use to track new housing permits month by month in Rio Grande Valley cities and county areas (Hidalgo, Cameron, Starr, Willacy counties): units and buildings by structure type and valuation since January 2024, with year-to-date totals. Filter by place, county, from and to (YYYY-MM). Covers cities that publish no weekly permits. Example: "How many single-family homes did Brownsville permit each month this year?"

## Output

A JSON object with an array of monthly rows (each containing place, month, county, units by type, buildings by type, total valuation in USD, data freshness flags, and age in days), plus year-to-date aggregates, a list of available months, and metadata including publisher, source, cadence, and any discrepancy notes between monthly sums and official YTD counts.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "properties": {
      "to": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Last month to include, YYYY-MM."
      },
      "from": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "First month to include, YYYY-MM. Default: 12 months back for one place, 3 months otherwise. from=2024-01 returns the whole history."
      },
      "place": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "A Valley city, or \"Hidalgo County (unincorporated)\" and the like."
      },
      "county": {
       "enum": [
        "Hidalgo",
        "Cameron",
        "Starr",
        "Willacy"
       ],
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Hidalgo, Cameron, Starr or Willacy (\"Hidalgo County\" also works)."
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object",
     "properties": {
      "note": {
       "type": "string"
      },
      "rows": {
       "type": "array",
       "items": {
        "type": "object"
       }
      },
      "query": {
       "type": "object",
       "properties": {
        "from": {
         "type": "string"
        },
        "place": {
         "type": "string"
        },
        "county": {
         "type": "string"
        }
       }
      },
      "title": {
       "type": "string"
      },
      "fields": {
       "type": "array",
       "items": {
        "type": "string"
       }
      },
      "series": {
       "type": "string"
      },
      "source": {
       "type": "string"
      },
      "cadence": {
       "type": "string"
      },
      "returned": {
       "type": "integer"
      },
      "publisher": {
       "type": "string"
      },
      "disclaimer": {
       "type": "string"
      },
      "year_to_date": {
       "type": "array",
       "items": {
        "type": "object"
       }
      },
      "months_available": {
       "type": "array",
       "items": {
        "type": "string"
       }
      },
      "year_to_date_diffe
… (truncated)
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "note": "New privately owned housing units authorized by building permits, as each city or county permit office reported them. A…",
  "rows": [
   {
    "as_of": "2026-01-31",
    "month": "2026-01",
    "place": "Brownsville",
    "stale": true,
    "county": "Cameron",
    "source": "public permit statistics",
    "status": "reported",
    "cadence": "monthly",
    "age_days": 245,
    "units_total": 62,
    "valuation_usd": 8942770,
    "two_unit_units": 0,
    "buildings_total": 44,
    "two_unit_buildings": 0,
    "single_family_units": 43,
    "five_plus_unit_units": 19,
    "three_four_unit_units": 0,
    "single_family_buildings": 43,
    "five_plus_unit_buildings": 1,
    "three_four_unit_buildings": 0
   }
  ],
  "query": {
   "from": "2026-01",
   "place": "Brownsville"
  },
  "title": "Housing units authorized by permit, by month",
  "fields": [
   "place"
  ],
  "series": "permits-monthly",
  "source": "public permit statistics",
  "cadence": "monthly",
  "returned": 8,
  "publisher": "Frontera Signal",
  "disclaimer": "Every value carries as_of, age_days, cadence and stale (weekly measures go stale after 14 days, monthly measures after …",
  "year_to_date": [
   {
    "year": 2026,
    "as_of": "2026-08-31",
    "place": "Brownsville",
    "stale": false,
    "county": "Cameron",
    "source": "public permit statistics",
    "cadence": "monthly",
    "through": "2026-08",
    "age_days": 33,
    "units_total": 940,
    "valuation_usd": 110314605,
    "two_unit_units": 0,
    "buildings_total": 525,
    "two_unit_buildings": 0,
    "single_family_units": 505,
    "five_plus_unit_units": 427,
    "three_four_unit_units": 8,
    "single_family_buildings": 505,
    "five_plus_unit_buildings": 18,
    "three_four_unit_buildings": 2
   }
  ],
  "months_available": [
   "2024-01",
   "2026-08"
  ],
  "year_to_date_differs": [
   {
    "year": 2026,
    "place": "Brownsville",
    "through": "2026-08",
    "monthly_rows": 8,
    "year_to_date_units": 940,
    "sum_of_months_units": 768
   }
  ]
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/frontera-signal-monthly-building-permits-df70e783/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from fronterasignal.com](https://www.zero.xyz/host/fronterasignal.com/llms.txt)