After flatlining in the years following the Great Recession, new home construction is on the rise in central Indiana.
The Builders Association of Greater Indianapolis reports there were 701 single-family home building permits in central Indiana in February, up from 646 during the same period last year, an increase of more than 8 percent.;
Here in Shelby County, home building is recovering slowly, but it’s still on the rise.
There were 31 new home permits issued in Shelby County for all of 2015, up from 27 permits issued the year before and the 26 permits issued in 2013.
“You can see it, an upward trend,” said Sam Booth, executive director of the Shelby County Plan Commission.
In the years immediately following the subprime mortgage crash, new home construction bottomed out. Just seventeen new home permits were issued throughout Shelby County in each of the years 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Only 51 new homes built in three years.
That’s a far cry from the peak in 2003 when the county issued 95 new home permits, Booth said.
In Shelbyville, the number of single-family home permits in the first three months of this year has picked up, said Lisa Loveless, secretary, permits and licensing administrator in the city’s Building and Planning Department.
“We’ve been busier than we have been,” she said.
The city has issued five single-family home permits during January through March, 2016, versus just two permits for the same period last year.
On average, Shelbyville has issued 14 single family home permits annually in each of the last five years.
After the economy went south, new home construction stalled because foreclosures created an oversupply of homes on the market. That excess inventory along with low demand because of the bad economy pushed home prices down, said Steve Allen, a Realtor with F.C. Tucker in Shelbyville.
Now, however, that’s beginning to turn around.
“With demand and limited supply, prices are beginning to increase,” Allen said.
Local Realtor Nancy Smith also said a lack of inventory is the issue now as contractors and banks, bitten by the recession economy, have been cautious about getting back into the new home construction business.
David Adams, building inspector for the county plan commission, noted that he’s seen an increase in “pole houses” which are built like pole barns, with the structure supported by large poles set in the ground instead of a traditional foundation, probably because they’re less expensive, he said.