For the second month in a row, single family homes have made a strong showing in permit statistics for the metro area. Additionally, June 2012 continued to show marked improvement over the previous four June permit numbers. The month averaged an 80 percent increase in permits and 45 percent increase in units over each June since 2007.
According to statistics compiled by the Keystone Report for the Builders Association of the Twin Cities (BATC), there were 465 permits for a total of 555 units during four weeks in the month of June, 2012. Year-to-date, there were 1,836 permits issued for a total of 3,170 units.
“We could get used to this trend,” said Builders Association of the Twin Cities 2012 President and owner of Lee Lyn Construction, Curt Christensen. “We’re seeing plenty of signs of improvement in housing, including the June 27th New York Times article headlined _After years of false hopes, signs of a turn in housing_.”
“The same NYT article quoted Joe Niece, an Eden Prairie Realtor, as having a number of ‘bidding wars’ for resale homes recently. That’s something we haven’t seen in years, which bodes well for new construction as existing home inventory drops below demand in a number of areas,” Christensen said.
Maple Grove led the metro area in building activity for the month with 68 units permitted. Savage followed with 48 units. Blaine was third with 46 units permitted, followed by Woodbury with 27 units and Plymouth and Prior Lake both permitted 26 units.