EL PASO COUNTY — Building permit numbers tracked by Pikes Peak Regional Building Department show some interesting ups and downs for single-family houses.
The number of permits issued in June spiked to 578, which is the highest number in nearly 20 years.
A month later, the number for July plummeted to 127.
There is a reason.
“This is all because we went through a code change,” said Greg Dingrando with Regional Building, “We go through a code change every six years and every time we have that happen, we always see an influx and plans getting submitted and an influx in permits happening right before that deadline.”
Despite the July spike, building permit numbers for 2023 so far, are down by close to 35% compared to numbers for the same period a year ago.
The difference is even more compared to 2020 and 2021.
“You look at 2020 and 2021, those were almost record-breaking years. For us, well over 5000 homes being permitted in those years,” said Dingrando.
In those years interest rates for loans were extremely low.
The housing market did well during the pandemic.
Then post-pandemic inflation hit and interest rates started to rise.
Dingrando said, “Numbers went way up during the pandemic, and as we started to kind of move, get back to normal. the permit numbers started to get back to normal as well”
Looking at permit numbers from five to six years back offers a better perspective.
Current housing permit numbers are down but not much lower than in those years.
It means the market for new houses is close to what is considered typical and doing well.
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