Building permits for single-family residences plummeted in 2011 compared with 2010 on the North Olympic Peninsula, building officials in Clallam and Jefferson counties confirm.
But as the 2012 construction season begins — and with the first quarter of 2012 past — some positive trends might be emerging, government officials and real estate industry experts say.
Here’s a rundown of single-family building permit activity for the past few years on the North Olympic Peninsula — and a look at the potential future from those in the know.
Unincorporated Clallam County
A measly 87 single family residential permits were issued in 2011 — the lowest number since at least 1975 and precipitously less than the 403 issued in 2004.
Good Friday, for example, wasn’t so good for county Community Development Director Sheila Roark Miller.
No one called the Department of Community office April 13 for any inspections, single-family residential or otherwise — something that’s never happened in her 22 years of working at the department, she said.
In recent years, contractors have gone from building beautiful homes to “looking madly to build a garage,” Roark Miller said.
But the first quarter of 2012 looks a little better, with Community Development issuing 25 single-family home permits compared with 23 during the same period of 2011.
One bright spot: Permits for additions and alterations to homes and commercial buildings have remained steady, Roark Miller said, singling out construction of the Walmart Supercenter east of Port Angeles in 2010 and the new Price Ford Lincoln dealership being built just west of Walmart by J&J Construction of Port Angeles.
J&J does both residential and commercial construction, owner Scott Schwagler said.
“The activity I’m seeing and work we have lined up is commercial or, residential-wise, is remodel-type stuff,” Schwagler said.
The lack of single-family home permit applications “is a consequence of having a lot of used homes on the market,” Port Angeles real estate agent Dick Pilling said.
“It’s reflective of the repossessions.”
Roark Miller predicted another two years before she starts to see the single-family residential permit numbers turning around, “partly because we’re so remote from the [Interstate 5] corridor,” she said.
Port Angeles city
The city building department saw a 100 percent increase in single-family-home building permit applications in the first quarter of 2012 — from three to six.
Total building permit valuation increased from $1.8 million to $1.9 million — excluding Nippon Industries USA’s $73 million biomass plant.
Permits for single-family residences dropped from 19 in 2010 to 15 in 2011
“Any increase is a positive thing as far as something that represents the economy and how the economy is doing,” city Economic and Community Development Director Nathan West said, adding that the city historically does not have high growth rates.
“There’s just a lot of inventory right now,” he said.
There’s reason to be optimistic with the city’s waterfront improvement project coming up and the development of the Port of Port Angeles’ composites campus next to William R. Fairchild International Airport, he said.
Forks city
The city issued one permit for a single-family home in 2010, three in 2011 — and one in 2004 when 403 were issued in the unincorporated county, city building official Dick Martin said.
That doesn’t include a permit issued in 2010 for a $3 million, 29-unit low-income housing development, Martin said.
“That was a big boost for us, those units going up,” he said.
No permits for single-family residences were issued in the first quarter of 2012, but one person did come into Martin’s office Thursday for an application, he said.
“It’s been pretty slow out here with the downturn of the logging industry and everything for the last 20 years,” Martin said.
“I think it will just stay the same, to tell you the truth.”
Sequim city
Twelve single-family residential permits were issued in 2011 compared with 19 in 2010 — and 112 in 2004, the county’s last boom year.
In the first quarter of 2011, seven single-family permits and one for a duplex were issued, compared with five single-family home permits for the first quarter of 2012.
The silver lining in the 2012 numbers: “A couple of contractors are building ‘spec’ homes, which was unusual,” city building official Ann Hall said.
“That was positive,” she said, adding the last speculation home in Sequim was built in 2009.
“It shows confidence in the market and shows that perhaps the banks are maybe wanting to lend money more,” Hall said.
But she predicted it will be another year to 18 months before residential growth starts to rebound noticeably.
Jefferson County, Port Townsend city
Building permits for the unincorporated county and Port Townsend are processed by the county Department of Community Development.
Single-family residential permits dropped from 89 in 2010 to 60 in 2011, Planning Manager Stacy Hoskins said.
But they’ve jumped from 11 in the first quarter of 2011 to 18 in the first quarter of this year.
“I think we’re at least stable,” Hoskins said.
“We’ll see what happens through the construction season.”
Overall, building permits including additions and remodels have increased, but even more dramatically, from 76 in the first quarter of 2011 to 107 in 2012, she said.
Teresa Goldsmith, broker-agent at John L. Scott Real Estate in Port Townsend, said the company is up three sales from the first quarter of 2011.
In addition, sales agents at the Port Townsend office are busy showing homes to potential first-time home buyers, even if actual buyers aren’t crowding the door.
Still it’s a good sign with so many foreclosed homes on the market, she said.
“We are actually getting land sales again, so that would equate for building permits,” she added.
“I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet, but maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
