Building Permits up 40% in Lexington KY for Single-Family Homes

After two years of doom and gloom in the Lexington, KY housing market, recent evens in Lexington have officials hopeful that the housing market will soon begin its turn-around. Mayor Jim Newberry, for example, pitched a city budget last week that proposed a 1.5% increase in spending for the coming fiscal year, citing a 40% increase in building permits for single-family homes.

It's an optimism shared by those who follow building trends around Lexington, although it appears to have not yet spread to surrounding counties. Those in the city say the rise in permits might be an indication that sales of homes in Lexington KY could finally be turning around.
 
Permits for single-family home have increased from 135 last year to 190 in the first quarter of 2009. Behind that increase are companies like Anderson Communities, which, according to owner Dennis Anderson, is "poised to be ready" for the impending turn-around in the housing market. Anderson said they've spent the winter coming up with new floor plans and honing their processes to be ready for the upswing they anticipate will happen later this year.

First-quarter real estate sales figures for Central Kentucky have not yet been released by the Lexington-Bluegrass Association of Realtors but are expected in the coming weeks.

People who are buying homes to be renovated are also contributing to a large rise in overall building permits. Total permits, which include renovations of existing homes as well as permits for commercial construction, rose 20 percent in the first quarter to 3,287 from 2,744 a year ago.