New housing permits up 9.4% in June

New Haven leads state in activity

The number of new housing permits issued in Connecticut during June rose 9.4 percent over June of last year, largely on the strength of residential development in New Haven, according to officials with the Department of Economic and Community Development.

There were 327 new housing units issued permits last month, including 77 in New Haven and 31 in Newtown. DECD does not release a townbytown breakout of the types of permits issued, so it was not immediately clear Wednesday whether the majority of the new units approved in New Haven during June were singlefamily homes or apartments.

“If the New Haven numbers are strong, it’s not from singlefamily homes,” said Donald KlepperSmith, chief economist and director of research for New Havenbased DataCore Partners. “These are all flexible housing alternatives — apartments and condominiums — and that reflects consumers’ uncertainty with the job market.”

Permit activity in New Haven for the first six months of this year was slightly behind where it was during the same period in 2018, according to the DECD data. There were 277 new housing units issued permits in the city during the first half of 2019 compared to 283 during the same period last year.

Statewide, there were 2,099 units issued permits during the first six months of this year, an 8.4 percent increase over the same period in 2018.

The majority of new housing units permits issued last month were for singlefamily homes. There were 160 new housing permits issued for singlefamily homes in June compared to 85 given out for developments of five units or more.

Overall, KlepperSmith said the increase construction of new, singlefamily homes is a reflection of an interest rate decrease and the expectation that homebuyers will want to get into the market before the cost of financing increases again.