Contractors down, work up
T he days when Summit County’s contractors had to plow snow to make ends meet might be a memory, but as business rebounds from the Great Recession, at least one lingering effect remains.
That is, for those local contractors who did survive the economic downturn, many are than projects Summit now they are fielding could County taking building ever more is longer satisfy, in boom. requests the to midst and complete. The as for of a county result work a record-breaking recently permits to the recession. last announced year than it issued any other more year building prior homes The permits to the luxury cover everything housing market from spec and commercial builds. Regardless of the project, however, the number of permits issued in Summit County throughout 2017 skyrocketed to 852 after the county OK’d 710 in 2016 and just 644 the year before that. “During the recession, many of (the local contractors) were doing small remodels and plowing driveways to keep their businesses going, but now we are seeing lots of new starts and spec homes back in the mix,” states the Summit County Building Inspection Department’s 2017 summary, released at the end of January. What’s more impressive is the local building community that’s shouldered much of the weight from the building boom has done it with reduced numbers compared to what they were seven years ago. That’s because there were 720 registered contractors in Summit County in 2010, but only 562 remained in 2017, according to Scott Hoffman, the county’s chief building official. It came as somewhat of a surprise, but Hoffman said the department didn’t have figures prior to 2010. Still, based on what in-
formation the county does have, Summit has lost almost one out of every five of its contractors since 2010.
“There is definitely less of a subcontractor base than there was seven years ago,” said Matt Mueller, director of development at Summit Sky Ranch. “During the recession it appeared that some of the subcontractors chased other opportunities in different industries, like the oil and gas industry or moved to other markets.”
Whatever the reason, Mueller notes that the local building community is feeling the effects, but he’s been “lucky” and “experienced very little attrition with regards to our contractor base.”
Mueller said the initial selection of subcontractors, along with being organized and having open lines of communication about the work happening on-site, helps ensure “a high level of efficiency, which equates to more profitability for the crews in the field.”
At the same time more than 150 local contractors have vanished from the landscape, Summit County’s housing market has shot up across the board in virtually every measurement.
Compared with 2016, the total monetary volume for all real estate transactions rose by 18 percent in 2017, for example. Meanwhile, the overall number of sales jumped 5 percent, and the price of the average singlefamily residential home rose 16 percent, according to figures previously provided by Land Title Guarantee Company of Summit County.