Duval County single-family home building permits topped the 1,000 mark in August, the first time a county in the greater Jacksonville area has reached that level of building activity.
Duval County reported 1,010 permits issued in August. Generally, the total for the four-county area is between 900 and 1,200.
Data compiled from city and county building departments by the Northeast Florida Builders Association for Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties show a total of 1,975 permits issued in August, an increase compared to July and an increase over the same period last year. The monthly average to date in 2005 is 1,536 permits issued, putting Jacksonville on a path to exceed last year’s total by more than 20 percent if the pace continues. Last year, 13,636 single-family permits were issued in the Jacksonville area.
Of the 1,010 single-family permits issued in Duval County in August, 45 were for condominium projects and represent 324 actual housing units.
Experts believe this will be another high-growth year for the local housing market.
Bryan Lendry, president of the Northeast Florida Builders Association, points to the August figures as evidence of the strength of the Jacksonville housing market.
“We broke the 10,000 mark in the Jacksonville MSA for the first time in 2002, and we’ve shown steady growth ever since,” Lendry said. “The four-county area has hovered around 1,000 permits monthly since mid-2002. This is the first time one county has broken the 1,000 mark, and all counties showed a solid increase over July.”
Lendry said the July statistics support builders’ optimism and contradict predictions about dramatic drops in housing value and decreases in production.
“Much has been written recently about a decline in the housing market, and there’s a lot of talk about the ‘housing bubble’,” Lendry said. “The best evidence we have that Jacksonville has a strong housing economy is the data. We’re seeing an influx of new residents, and the demand for new homes is legitimate.”
The monthly total for the four-county area is 1,975 permits issued compared to 1,169 this time last year.