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Views of new home construction at Hillcrest Village in Southington, Conn., on Thursday Mar. 18, 2021. There is a large demand for newly constructed homes in the New Haven area.
Views of new home construction at Hillcrest Village in Southington, Conn., on Thursday Mar. 18, 2021. There is a large demand for newly constructed homes in the New Haven area.
The number of new housing permits issued in Connecticut last month hit its highest July level in 17 years, officials with the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development said Tuesday.
There were 743 housing units approved last month in the state. That represents more new housing permits than were issued in May and June combined.
One factor for the surge in new housing permits came from multi-family residential construction, which includes both apartments and condominiums, said Bob Wiedenmann, owner of Sunwood Development in Wallingford, a new home builder.
Of the 743 new units issued permits, nearly 73 percent were for developments of five or more units.
Another factor was an unusually large number of new housing permits in Bridgeport.
More than half the new housing units that were approved overall came from the Park City, where officials approved 423. New Haven had the next largest amount of new housing activity, with 58 units approved.
“If you subtract the number of permits issued in Bridgeport, the July numbers would be the lowest amount of new housing activity this year,” Wiedenmann said.
Even with the surge in new housing permits, the total number of new housing permits issued during the first seven months of this year was 3,037 units, he said. That’s the lowest number of new housing units issued permits during the same period since 2011, according to Wiedenmann.
Donald Klepper-Smith, an economist with DataCore Partners, said housing is one of the few economic indicators “that has held up pretty well” this year in Connecticut.
“Transportation oriented housing along the Interstate 95 corridor has seen greater demand,” Klepper-Smith said. “That would explain the number of units approved in Bridgeport and New Haven.”
Going into the fourth quarter of this year, Klepper-Smith said he expects upward pressure on housing affordability in Connecticut because of a series of interest increases by the Federal Reserve.
“It takes a while for policy changes to be reflected in consumer behavior,” he said. “Higher housing prices are going to be baked into the cake for the next couple of years as a result.”
New housing permits are considered a key economic indicator because moving into a new house or apartment is usually accompanied by purchases of big ticket items like appliances or electronics.
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Luther Turmelle covers business for the New Haven Register and Hearst Connecticut Media as well as the towns of Cheshire and Wallingford. He specializes in covering the utility and energy beats. A graduate of Boston University, Turmelle has held multiple leadership roles in the Society of Professional Journalist, including two terms serving on the organization’s national Board of Directors.
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