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The Indianapolis area continued to see a slump in residential construction last month despite a big jump in single-family building permits in Marion County.
Builders in the nine-county Indianapolis area filed 632 single-family building permits in April, down from 838 in the same month of 2022—a decline of 25%, according to the latest statistics from the Builders Association of Greater Indianapolis.
Area filings have fallen on a year-over-year basis for the past 16 months and in 19 of the past 21 months.
Through the first four months of the year, area builders made 2,162 permit filings, down 32% from the same period of 2022.
Declining numbers don’t appear to be hurting the outlook of residential builders, at least on a national basis. U.S. home builder sentiment unexpectedly rose this month to the highest level in 10 months as a limited supply of overall housing continued to drive prospective buyers toward new construction.
The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo gauge jumped five points, to 50, extending a streak of increases to five months, figures showed this week. Even with the recent improvement, the gauge is well below levels seen at the end of 2021, when mortgage rates were much lower.
“Lack of existing inventory continues to drive buyers to new construction,” Robert Dietz, NAHB chief economist, said in an interview with Bloomberg News. “With limited available housing inventory, new construction will continue to be a significant part of prospective buyers’ search in the quarters ahead.”
Measures of current sales and sales expectations rose to the highest level since the summer. A gauge of prospective buyer traffic also edged up to a 10-month high.
County numbers
– Marion County saw a 48% rise in single-family permits in April on a year-over-year basis, with filings jumping from 89 to 132. On a year-to-date basis, filings are down 10% in the county compared with the first four months of 2022, from 410 to 370.
– Hendricks County’s permit numbers rose 27%, from 89 to 113.
– Morgan County saw 32 permits last month, an increase of 39%.
– Hamilton County saw a 15% decline in filings, from 296 to 251.
– Boone County filings fell 35%, from 55 to 36.
– Hancock County saw a 74% drop in filings, to 24.
– Johnson County experienced a 78% decrease in filings, to 29.
– Madison County filings dropped 75%, to 14.
– Shelby County filings fell from six to one.
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