Residential Construction Permit Numbers Remain Sluggish

KANSAS CITY-Statistics released by the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City show that residential construction is dropping sharply. The HBA surveyed seven metropolitan counties and found that the number of permits for single-family housing was down nearly 30% for the first two months of this year, compared to the same time frame last year.

“The local new home building industry continues to mirror the slowdown in the national economy,” says Tim Underwood, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City. “We understand that traffic and sales have picked up in the last couple of months, but this has mostly cleared out inventory from last year.

“Local builders have yet to make a definite prediction on how strong they think the market will be for the rest of the year,” he adds. “At this point, the consensus seems to be that the rest of the year will be down somewhat from last year’s levels.”