Lexington, KY - In April, during a press conference on next year's budget proposal, Mayor Jim Newberry took note amid gloomy budgetary predictions of a refreshing first-quarter increase of 40 percent in Lexington's residential building permits over last year.
On the national scene, the number of building permits for single-family and multi-family housing was down by 48 percent year-to-date from 2008, and likewise, Kentucky saw a drop of 37 percent statewide, according to statistics from the Bureau of Census provided by the National Association of Home Builders.
The number of single- and multi-family building permits issued for the Lexington-Fayette MSA, however, actually increased by slightly more than 9 percent year-to-date during the same time period.
So is this the turning point? After the steep freefall experienced by the industry in recent years, could it be that the worst is behind us?
Builders and remodelers aren't ready to go that far, but the positive signs, along with incentives they have seen recently, like the Recovery Act's $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit, have been a welcome change.
Locally, builders are starting to report more traffic from prospective home buyers in models and slight increases in sales, although they are remaining pretty conservative as a whole in their business models, said Todd Johnson, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Lexington.
Click here to read Susan Baniak's feature on Ball Homes' Mira Ball.
Click here to read Tom Martin's interview with Back Construction co-owner and president Kyle Whalen.