Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowArea home builders had their busiest year in a decade in 2017, the Builders Association of Greater Indianapolis reported Thursday.
Home builders filed 6,198 single-family construction permits in the nine-county area last year, a 7 percent increase over the 5,778 they filed in 2016, BAGI said.
That’s the highest number since 2007, when builders turned in 7,326 permits. Home-construction activity plummeted the following year as the Great Recession took hold. Permit filings dropped to 4,566 in 2008.
The 2017 number marks the sixth straight year of rising sales, but still pales in comparison to the single-year high for area filings in this century: 15,054 in 2001.
Area filings have been on the rise in 23 of the last 25 months on a year-over-year basis. They rose from 375 in December 2016 to 421 last month, a 12 percent increase.
Marion County saw a 70 percent increase in filings in December, from 47 to 80.
For the year, 1,106 permits were filed in Marion County, up 17 percent from 2016.
As usual, Hamilton County led the area in filings, with 2,232 in 2017, an increase of 2 percent from the previous year.
Hendricks saw 956 annual filings, up 3 percent from 2016.
Annual filings were up 19 percent in Johnson County, to 705. They rose 2 percent in Boone County, to 411.
Filings were up 15 percent in Hancock County in 2017, to 459, and climbed 22 percent in Shelby County, to 107.
Permits dropped 16 percent in Madison County, to 95, but rose 23 percent in Morgan County, to 127.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.