New home construction is on the rise in Lowndes County, but the opposite is true in the City of Columbus.
From January to July 2010, the county took nearly two times as many permit requests as 2009.
Charles Culpepper, Lowndes County”s director of building inspections, said the county took a hit in 2009 and was down more than 60 percent. As far as he was concerned, the economy was the reason. Compared to other parts of the nation, the county had been “blowing and going for the last five or six years.” In 2009, though, Culpepper said Lowndes County finally caught up to the rest of the country, and people were coming in to get permits but deciding a couple of weeks later that they just couldn”t afford it.
In 2010, the numbers are showing signs of improvement, even though they are still about 35 percent away from the 2008 figures. This year, the county has accepted 64 new housing permits, compared to 36 in 2009.
It”s a different story in the city, however.
“New building permits are definitely down,” said Kenny Wiegel, Columbus” zoning officer. “New construction, besides a few, has almost come to a screeching halt. There are no spec houses I”m aware of being built, whatsoever, in town. The few we have under construction are for private owners who decided to build.”
Noting five new single-family residential permits have been issued in Columbus this year, compared to 10 in 2009, Wiegel said the poor economy “absolutely” is to blame.
“That”s what I hear, continually, is the reason for the (new housing) downturn,” he explained.
In 2009, 50 residential building permits were issued in Starkville and 26 have been issued, through June of this year, said Building Inspector Ken Honeycutt.
“So far, we”re looking like we”re pretty close to last year,” he said. “It”s slowed down a little bit, but we”re still chugging along. We haven”t noticed it as bad as other communities have.”
“Considering the way the economy is, I think we”re doing better,” Building Inspector Mike St. Louis, who handles permits for West Point and Clay County, said. “We”ve actually got 13 new homes going on right now. For some reason, we”re fortunate enough to have it going for us right now. I would say we”re either even with where we were last year or a little above; we”re definitely not lower.”
St. Louis attributes the rise in building permits to developments around the Waverly area.
“We”ve got a tremendous amount of remodeling,” he said. “A lot of people who can”t build a house right now are adding on.”
Staff Writer Seth Putnam contributed to this report.
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