“The trends are hard to figure,” Johnston County Director of Building Inspections Dean Barbour said after his department released March 2019 building permit numbers. Last month, permits were issued for construction of 155 new single family homes. That’s a 24 percent decrease from 193 homes permitted in March 2018.
“Single family homes were also down in December and leveled out in January to go right back up again in February. Now they are down again in March,” Barbour added.
Permits were also issued last month for construction of 12 townhomes, 6 modular homes, and two duplexes. Permits were also approved for 13 single and doublewides.
Barbour expects numbers to increase this month and continue to grow for the remainder of 2019. “April may see a large increase due to the higher number of inspections being made since the weather has improved. I am expecting the market to continue to increase until the fourth quarter.”
The average value of a single family home permitted in March 2019 was $182,798 up from an average of $181,108 in March 2018.
