Garrett County Housing Starts Down Dramatically ..

This week's edition of the Republican Newspaper reports that the number of housing permits issued in the first half of 2008 is down 20% from the prior year. I actually took a minute to make the table you see below based on the data provided in the story and while the 20% decline from last year is rather large it pales in comparison to the nearly 50% decline in permits issued from the first half of 2004 to the first half of 2008. The good news for anyone trying to sell a home right now, however, is that builders are realizing there is a severe glut of unsold properties right now and are no longer willing to add to that glut. I discussed the unsold inventory of properties and subsequent price declines in Garrett County based on May 2008 data in a pair of earlier postings. As bad as that data was for May 2008, believe it or not June 2008 inventory was higher with sales slower, certainly suggesting that a pullback in new construction was unavoidable and necessary at the same time.



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