NYC Department of Buildings job filings held almost perfectly flat over the latest rolling 30-day window, slipping from 12,369 to 12,335 — a drop of just 34 applications across the entire city. Manhattan actually gained filings, up to 4,513 from 4,517 is roughly flat, while total declared construction cost in Manhattan dipped from $1.504 billion to $1.506 billion — again, essentially no movement.
The borough breakdown tells the same story everywhere you look. Brooklyn held at 3,301 filings and $842.6 million in declared cost, both within a rounding error of the prior cycle. Queens dipped slightly to 2,535 filings from 2,549, but its declared cost actually rose to $1.169 billion from $1.168 billion — meaning fewer applications carrying slightly more dollar value apiece. The Bronx and Staten Island both moved by single-digit percentages in either direction. Nothing here reads as a borough heating up or cooling off; it reads as a city filing paperwork at the same pace it was filing it a day earlier.
“A filing that size sitting unchanged at the top for more than a day either means it's working through DOB NOW, or it's aging out of relevance.”
The one number holding steady at the top of the list is worth a second look precisely because it hasn't moved: a $350 million Alteration CO filing on 31st Avenue in Queens, owner listed only as "PR," stayed the single largest filing in the city's 30-day window in both cycles. A filing that size sitting unchanged at the top for more than a day either means it's a long-pending application still working through DOB NOW, or it's simply aging out of relevance for anyone watching day-to-day movement. Either way, it's the same filing — same cost, same address, same borough — in both snapshots.
By filing type, Alteration applications ticked down to 9,101 from 9,126, New Building filings rose slightly to 1,355 from 1,359, and Full Demolition dropped to 238 from 240. These are all within normal day-to-day noise for a rolling 30-day count — none of it is a trend yet. A genuinely new pattern would need to hold for several cycles running, and right now the filings data is doing the opposite: sitting still.
What this means for you: There's no fresh surge or pullback to chase in any single borough right now — if you're tracking filing volume as a leading indicator for upcoming permits, this window says keep your current read, not change it. How we count: Figures are NYC Department of Buildings job filings (applications, not issued permits), via NYC Open Data, counted on a rolling 30-day basis by filing date; this cycle's pull is compared against a snapshot taken roughly one day earlier.