Home construction comes off record year

After all, Morrow said, “You can't set a record every year.”

Greene County saw more single-family homes built in 2005 than ever before: 1,268. The previous record was 1,254 in 2003.

“There's still very strong demand for new homes in this part of the state,” Morrow said. “There's no reason to believe that (2006) wouldn't be another very strong year.”

Morrow said 1,000 annual housing starts in Greene County is a benchmark for strength - a standard that has been reached every year since 2002.

Morrow credits local housing growth to land affordability, plenty of recreational amenities and a diverse, recession-resistant economy.

He said Greene County housing starts are a better measure of area growth than Springfield housing starts because city construction remains fairly constant - about 425 homes started every year - due to land limitations.

In 2005, Springfield issued 2,782 permits for all building construction - single-family, multi-family and commercial - down from 3,169 in 2004, according to a Building Development Services report.

However, Springfield issued 439 single-family permits in 2005, up from 418 in 2004. Total single-family construction in the city was estimated to be down about $2.5 million to $73.9 million.

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