More homes going up in Top of Utah cities

LAYTON — Single-family home construction is on the rise in central Davis County because of tax credits for first-time home buyers, lending institutions having more available funds and builders offering more starter homes, officials say.

North Ogden is also experiencing gains in the number of single-family home-building permits issued in 2009, while Ogden and West Haven, respectively, report permits being about even or slightly down compared with last year.

The home-building permit increases in Layton, Kaysville and Clearfield are encouraging to those cities’ officials, who say they are a sign of economic growth.
“It shows we are headed the right direction, we are heading out of this,” said Layton economic specialist Ben Hart.

The number of single-family building permits issued in Layton is up 10 percent over 2008, not including permits issued this month, Hart said. Permit gains should boost consumer confidence.

Single-family building permits are linked to the economy, as each permit generates home construction that creates jobs, which in turn creates a multiplying economic effect, Hart said.

Home growth stems from builders beginning to understand buyers’ desire for more starter homes, Hart said, and because the market is now freeing up financing for buyers.

“The goal of any economy is to be sustainable,” Hart said. Sustainable went by the wayside years ago when people applied for home loans they were not in a position to appropriately afford, he said.

A gain in home-building permits is good news because it moves home inventory and puts people back to work, said Taz Biesinger, executive vice president of the Utah Homebuilders Association.

In 2008, an estimated 6,400 single-family households were created statewide, compared with 8,000 to 9,000 new households created this year, he said.
A healthy pace of home creation is 15,000 to 16,000 households per year.

Household creation occurs when people move into the state, children leave home either through marriage or to live on their own, and couples divorce.

However, the association remains cautiously optimistic about the reported surge in home building, Biesinger said, crediting the recent increase in activity to the tax credit offered to first-time home buyers and money now being made available by lending institutions.

Economists are projecting better activity in the second and third quarters of 2010, Biesinger said.

But it will not return to 2007 levels, when an artificial housing market existed, he said.

“There were people in the market that shouldn’t have been in the market.”

Other cities are also enjoying home-building gains this year.

Clearfield has issued 44 single-family building permits as of Dec. 8, compared to 35 permits issued last year, said Chris Horrocks, city building permit specialist.

Nearly half of the single-family building permits issued by the city this year have been issued since September, Horrocks said. “It has picked up.”

In Kaysville, 75 single-family building permits have been issued, compared with 77 permits issued last year, said Tyese Williams, with the city building department.

“We may surpass what we had last year by a small amount,” Williams said of those building permits still to be issued this month.

In North Ogden, 26 single-family building permits have been issued, with four more permits to be issued before the end of the year, compared with 21 permits issued in 2008, officials said.

The number of single-family building permits issued in Ogden is about where it was in 2008, said Jo Ann Brookins, city development services supervisor.

“We may come out a few ahead this year.”