St Louis Area New-Home Building Permits Drop In April After Spiking in March

Dennis Norman

After seeing a spike in permits for new homes in St. Louis in March, with the exception of the City of St. Louis, all the St. Louis metro area counties saw a decline in new home permits in April, some rather steep based upon the latest data reported by the Home Builders Association of St. Louis (HBA).

Existing home sales data and mortgage application data have suggested that the April 30th deadline for the home-buyer tax credit caused an artificial surge in the housing market as buyers raced to beat the deadline to buy a home; it now appears the new home data is going to follow suit.

Highlights from the HBA report (April, 2010 New-Home Permit Data):

• St. Louis County New Home Building Permits: 40, down 18.4 percent from March and just slightly behind April 2009.
• St. Charles County New Home Building Permits: 140, down 31.4 percent from March and slightly ahead of April 2009.
• Jefferson County New Home Building Permits: 59, down 33.0 percent from March but Up 20.4 percent from April 2009.
• Franklin County New Home Building Permits: 18, down 33.33 percent from March, but up 100 percent from April 2009.
• Lincoln County New Home Building Permits: 13, down 40.9 percent from March but up a staggering 333 percent from April 2009.
• Warren County New Home Building Permits: 17, down 64.0 percent from March but up 112.5 percent from April 2009.
• St. Louis City New Home Building Permits: 14, up 55.56 percent from March but down 26.32 percent from April 2009.

Year-t0-date New Home Permits Look Better For All Areas, except the City of St. Louis (all current ytd data is through April 2010):

• St. Louis County YTD New Home Building Permits: 148, up 37.03 percent from the same time last year and down 22.51 percent from the same period in 2008.
• St. Charles County YTD New Home Building Permits: 557, up 74.1 percent from the same time last year and up 8.2 percent from the same period in 2008.
• Jefferson County YTD New Home Building Permits: 244, up 70.63 percent from the same time last year and down 7.5 percent from the same period in 2008.
• Franklin County YTD New Home Building Permits: 62, up 14.8 percent from the same time last year and up 264.7 percent from the same period in 2008.
• Lincoln County YTD New Home Building Permits: 54, up 145.5 percent from the same time last year and up 12.5 percent from the same period in 2008.
• Warren County YTD New Home Building Permits: 79, up 216.0 percent from the same time last year and up 52.0 percent from the same period in 2008.
• City of St. Louis YTD New Home Building Permits: 25, down  13.8 percent from the same time last year and down 46.8 percent from the same period in 2008.

The YTD numbers are getting the benefit of the spike in March so, going forward in “post tax credit times”, I think it is apparent that the momentum is going to slow which will cause the comparison to the prior two years to not look quite as positive.   I think May’s numbers will be very telling of the future.

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