How many ADUs are being built in the San Fernando Valley? Our ZIP-by-ZIP count

How many ADU permits does the Valley get each year?

The Valley's City of LA ZIP codes went from 2,554 ADU and JADU building permits in 2023 to 2,739 in 2024 and 3,185 in 2025 ¹. Through Oct. 4, 2026, the count stands at 2,397, which puts this year roughly level with last year once you scale it to a full year ¹.

The Valley carries about half of the city's ADU work. Citywide, the same permit data shows 5,623 permits in 2023, 5,814 in 2024, 6,487 in 2025 and 4,926 so far in 2026 ². In both 2025 and 2026 to date, the Valley ZIPs account for 49% of that total ¹². That is not a surprise when you look at the lots. The median single-family lot in Reseda is about 6,600 square feet and in Pacoima about 7,000, which leaves room behind the house for a backyard house or a garage conversion ⁷.

Which Valley ZIP codes are building the most ADUs?

Reseda is first by a clear margin, and Granada Hills has climbed to a firm second. Here are the twelve busiest Valley ZIPs, ranked by 2025 permits, with 2024, 2025 and 2026 through Oct. 4 ¹:

1. Reseda 91335: 199 in 2024, 254 in 2025, 175 in 2026 so far
2. Granada Hills 91344: 174, 210, 157
3. North Hollywood / Valley Glen 91606: 152, 176, 76
4. Van Nuys / Lake Balboa 91406: 135, 163, 101
5. Pacoima 91331: 144, 156, 140
6. Sun Valley 91352: 129, 152, 114
7. North Hollywood 91605: 130, 136, 109
8. North Hills 91343: 130, 133, 71
9. Sylmar 91342: 108, 120, 104
10. Winnetka 91306: 107, 117, 113
11. Northridge 91325: 79, 103, 60
12. North Hollywood 91601: 89, 102, 61

These are the flat-floor neighborhoods of the Valley, built out on post-war tract lots. Reseda alone has more than 11,000 single-family parcels inside the City of LA, more than most Valley ZIPs, so part of its lead is simply the number of houses ⁷. Granada Hills has even more, about 13,300, on larger lots with a median near 8,300 square feet ⁷.

Which neighborhoods are picking up speed in 2026?

Pacoima is the big ZIP to watch. It logged 140 permits in the first 277 days of 2026, which scales to about 184 for the full year, or 18% more than its 156 in 2025 ¹. Winnetka (91306, about 27% ahead of its 2025 pace) and Woodland Hills 91367 (about 33% ahead) are also running well above last year ¹.

Some smaller ZIPs are growing fastest in percentage terms ¹:

• Northridge 91324: 53 so far in 2026 against 46 in all of 2025, about 52% ahead on a full-year basis
• Canoga Park / West Hills 91304: 70 against 61, about 51% ahead
• Tujunga 91042: 90 against 82, about 45% ahead
• Woodland Hills 91364: 51 against 48, about 40% ahead

The other side of the ledger matters too. Reseda is on pace for about 230 permits, 9% below its 2025 record, and North Hollywood / Valley Glen 91606 is running about 43% below 2025 ¹. With counts this small, a single apartment-building project or a few busy builders can swing a ZIP's number. We would read one year's change as a hint, not a trend.

How did Greenlight count these permits?

We queried the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS) permit dataset that the city publishes on its open data portal, called Building Permits Issued from 2020 to Present ¹. We kept permits whose use is Accessory Dwelling Unit or Junior Accessory Dwelling Unit and whose type is a new building, an addition, or an alteration and repair. Then we grouped them by ZIP code and by the year the permit was issued ¹. The data was refreshed on Oct. 4, 2026, and we checked it again on Oct. 8, 2026.

Three things to keep in mind when you read the numbers:

• These are permits, not homes. One project can carry more than one building permit, for example a new backyard house plus an alteration to the main house. Use the counts to compare ZIPs with each other, not as a count of finished units.
• 2026 is partial. When we say a ZIP is on pace, we took its count through Oct. 4 and scaled it to 365 days. Permit issuance is not even across the year, so that is an estimate.
• ZIP codes are not neighborhood lines. Some Valley ZIPs cross into other cities or unincorporated county land. The LADBS data only covers permits the City of LA issued, so it misses anything built under a different city's rules.

You can rerun the query yourself at the dataset link in our sources and should get the same figures, give or take any records the city corrects later.

How does this compare with the city's official ADU numbers?

The official counts are higher because they count units, not permit records. In its annual housing report to the state, the City of LA reported 11,410 ADU units issued building permits in 2024 and 12,327 in 2025 ³. The same report shows 5,134 ADU units completed in 2024 and 5,909 in 2025 ³. In other words, roughly one ADU is finished for every two that get a permit in a given year, which fits the fact that a backyard house takes many months to build after the permit is issued.

Other counts land in between, depending on the method. The newsroom Crosstown counted 6,626 ADU permits in the city in 2024 and named Sun Valley, Reseda and Van Nuys as the top neighborhoods ⁴. Across all of Los Angeles County, researchers at USC's Neighborhood Data for Social Change found that more than 10,200 ADUs were completed in 2025, a record and 37% of the county's new housing ⁵. Every source agrees on the direction. ADUs are now one of the main ways new housing gets added here, and the Valley is where much of that happens.

What do these numbers mean for me as a homeowner?

Mostly that you are not the first on your street, and that has practical upsides and downsides. We would keep the reading modest, since permit counts do not measure wait times or prices.

• The path is well worn. In a ZIP with 150 to 250 permits a year, plan checkers, inspectors and local builders see the same lot types over and over. The city also runs a Standard Plan Program, which LADBS says makes it easier to get permits for ADUs that are built repeatedly ⁶.
• Builders are busy where permits are high. A high count suggests there are many crews working in the area. It can also mean schedules fill up, so it is worth asking any builder how many projects they have running near you.
• Your neighbors are a resource. In Reseda or Granada Hills, there is a good chance someone nearby has built one in the last three years. Ask them what surprised them on cost, the sewer connection, or the power upgrade.
• A busy ZIP does not answer your lot. The count tells you ADUs get approved around you. It does not tell you where your sewer line runs, whether your garage was permitted, or whether your panel can take the load. That is the kind of thing a lot check settles.

Quick answers

Sources

1. Building and Safety - Building Permits Issued from 2020 to Present (N), dataset pi9x-tg5x (Greenlight query by Valley ZIP), City of Los Angeles Open Data / LADBS. Facts checked 2026-10-08
2. Building and Safety - Building Permits Issued from 2020 to Present (N), dataset pi9x-tg5x (Greenlight citywide query), City of Los Angeles Open Data / LADBS. Facts checked 2026-10-08
3. Housing Element Annual Progress Report (APR) Data by Jurisdiction and Year, Table A2, California Department of Housing and Community Development (data.ca.gov). Facts checked 2026-10-08
4. ADUs lift Los Angeles's otherwise dismal housing market, Crosstown (USC Annenberg newsroom). Facts checked 2026-10-08
5. ADUs had a banner year in LA County. It’s not enough to fill the housing gap, study says., Smart Cities Dive (reporting USC Lusk Center / Neighborhood Data for Social Change). Facts checked 2026-10-08
6. Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU), Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety. Facts checked 2026-10-08
7. LA County Parcels (Assessor), Greenlight lot-size query by ZIP, Los Angeles County Office of the Assessor. Facts checked 2026-10-08

Greenlight is not a contractor, architect or engineer, and this is not legal advice. Rules change; every fact here shows the date we last checked it.