What Groundbreak is.
Groundbreak is a development database and daily newsroom for 7 Sunbelt markets: Austin, Atlanta, Miami, Nashville, Tampa Bay, Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth. It reads the public record every day (building permits, deeds, construction loans, notices of commencement, zoning and site plan cases, trade sub-permits) and names the contractor, owner and lender on each project where the county publishes them. Every project and company file is open to anyone; the parties on each record are on the Pro plan.
How it works
Every morning the ingest reads each market's public feeds: the city and county permit portals, the county clerk's official records index, the appraisal roll, and the planning commission and council agendas. Each record is matched to a parcel and to a project. A change on a project (a new permit, a recorded loan, a status flip) becomes a line in its history, and the ones that matter become a story on the news site. Nothing on a project file is typed in from a press release; every row links to the document it came from.
The project and company files are open to anyone. The parties on each record (the buyer, the lender, the applicant, the phone from the permit) are on the Pro plan, with a few free reveals for every account.
Data policy
- Every claim about a market's data matches what that county publishes. The coverage page lists each source, what it delivers, and what is off and why.
- Counts and league tables on the reports pages are computed from the filings on the hour stated on the page, and may be quoted with a link to the page.
- Names, phones and emails come only from the public record and are shown as the record shows them. A correction request goes to max@groundbreak.city.
- Vendor facts on the comparison pages are taken from the vendor's own site on the date shown there.
Max Gillespie
Founder, Groundbreak. Max writes the guides and reports on this site and takes the calls booked from it. Corrections and questions go to max@groundbreak.city. LinkedIn ↗
Markets
- Austin, TX
The contractor's phone is on the permit.
- Atlanta, GA
Buyer, seller and lender on every DeKalb deed. Phone and email on DeKalb permits.
- Miami, FL
The contractor is named on the permit. So is every sub. The lender is on the deed.
- Nashville, TN
The applicant is on the permit. The buyer and price are on the roll.
- Tampa Bay, FL
The contractor is named on the permit. The lender is on the deed.
- Charlotte, NC
The owner and phone are on the permit. The last sale is on the parcel.
- Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
The contractor is named on the permit. The lender is on the deed of trust.