November Permits Show Housing Continues to Improve in Metro Area
Housing production continues to outpace the years since 2008 in cities across the Greater Kansas City Metropolitan Area. The trend through November continues up as reflected in the monthly average of single family permits. In 2012 that average was 274 compared to 2011 with 192, 2010 with 207, 2009 with 180, and 2008 with 269. Single family permits in November were higher than the yearly average to date and totaled 283 for the best November since 2007. Multi-family housing production continued to climb with 332 permits of which 302 were in Grain Valley, Missouri and 30 in Paola, Kansas, according to the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City’s (HBA) monthly Residential Building Permit Statistics report.
“The Metro area has avoided the slide that occurred in the fourth quarter of the last three years,” said Executive Vice President Sara Corless. “By all accounts the home building industry is continuing to improve which is an important signal of stability amidst the slowly emerging recovery. The main thing that’s still limiting progress is the difficulty that potential buyers continue to experience with regard to overly tight mortgage qualifying standards.”
The share of new permits per county has remained relatively unchanged since 2011 with Johnson County at 38 percent, Clay County at 20 and Jackson County with 18 percent. Platte County’s number of permits issued has the highest percentage increase doubling over last year with 314 permits in 2012 compared to 157 in 2011. Cities in the top ten year to date include Kansas City, Missouri with 567, Olathe with 397, Overland Park with 332, Lee’s Summit with 258, Platte County with 153, Shawnee with 129, Lenexa with 114, Kansas City, Kansas with 100, Blue Springs with 82, and Leawood with 68.