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11/07/2014, Construction of new homes fell short of last
year's pace during the first half of 2014 in most of Wisconsin's biggest metro areas.
Altogether, 1,837 permits to build new homes were issued
from January through June in metropolitan Milwaukee,
Dane County,
the Green Bay-Door
County area, Fox Valley
and the Racine-Kenosha market, according to MTD Marketing Services of Wisconsin
Inc. That was 1.1% fewer than in the first six months of 2013, when there were
1,857.
The Fox
Valley had the largest
percentage decrease at 14%, as permits for single-family homes and duplexes
dropped to 294 from 342 in the first half of the year.
Other declines were much smaller. Permits in metropolitan Milwaukee dipped to 588
from 591, a decrease of 0.5%. In the Racine-Kenosha area, permits decreased to
140 from 144.
However, home-building permits increased 7.5% in the Green Bay-Door
County area, to 300 from
279. That market was helped by 77 permits in June alone, up from 55 in the same
month last year. In Dane
County, permits rose
2.8%, to 515 from 501, in the first half of 2014.
Dominic Collar, of Oshkosh-based MTD, said most new homes
are being constructed under contracts with buyers, but some builders are
putting up spec homes and seem to find success when they do.
"If you talk to most of them, they are sold before the
project is completed," Collar said.
New home construction remains far behind levels from the
market boom of the early and mid-2000s, but has been slowly recovering for the
last five years.
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