‘Promising’ data: Construction of new homes spikes in Joliet

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The city had 88 housing starts in 2011, showing an increase from 2010, according to the director of inspectional services for Joliet. Sun-Times Media | File photo

Updated: March 16, 2012 8:16AM

JOLIET — Joliet is having what passes for a minor housing boom these days.

The city had 88 housing starts in 2011, said David Mackley, director of inspectional services for Joliet.

That’s up from 58 starts in 2010 and 25 in 2009. But it’s a shadow of housing activity from the real boom years.

“Obviously, we’re not at the levels we were at in ’05,” Mackley said. “I was doing a hundred a month back then.”

Still, Mackley said, “Eighty-eight’s great in this economy.”

This year looks “promising” so far, too, he said.

Mackley will make a report on building trends during the 3 p.m. Wednesday meeting of the Joliet City Council Land Use Committee.

Committee Chairman Don Fisher said he was particularly encouraged by the pick-up in activity in the second half of 2011.

Eighty of the residential building permits were taken out in the second half of the year.

Fisher said he was hopeful that the trend would continue through 2012.

Bolstering the 2011 numbers, however, was the Liberty Meadows Estate subdivision, which is being developed by a nonprofit arm of the Housing Authority of Joliet. The development includes housing for low- to mid-income residents and is subsidized with government funding.

Thirty-eight of the building permits in 2011 went to Liberty Meadow Estates for both single-family houses and duplexes.

Construction in Liberty Meadow will continue this year but no new houses will be started, said Henry Morris, chief executive at the Housing Authority of Joliet. So, the development will not contribute to housing statistics in 2012.

But Mackley said housing starts have been spread around town. He pointed to the NeuFairfield subdivision on the east end of the city as another place where houses are being built.

NeuFairfield at one time was a victim of the housing bust. Construction halted there and at two other Joliet subdivisions being developed by Neumann Homes when the company shut down and declared bankruptcy in 2007.

NeuFairfield was taken over by Cambridge Homes, a division of national home builder D.R. Horton.

One promising sign for the future, Mackley said, is that more foreclosed homes appear to be getting sold and taken off the market. The glut of heavily discounted foreclosed homes has been one of the key factors choking demand for new houses.

Mackley pointed to an increase of about 500 building permits issued for residential remodeling in 2011 compared to 2010.

The total number of permits last year was 2,278, and Mackley said many of those remodels are foreclosed homes being sold off.