Wellington has huge jump in housing starts

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

The town of Wellington has seen a huge jump in the number of building permits issued this year. However, housing starts in rural Larimer County are still stagnant, showing only slight improvement over a dismal 2003.

Cynthia Sullivan, who processes building permits for Wellington, said the town has issued 131 building permits so far this year for single-family residences. Last year at this time, that number was 55.

The big difference, Sullivan said, is that there are four subdivisions building homes this year, compared to only one in 2003. The four active developments are Three Silos, The Knolls, Buffalo Creek and The Meadows. The Meadows is located east of Interstate 25. Another east-side development, Kelbran Estates, could also begin building homes this year, she said.

Prior to this year, Sullivan noted, Wellington has tended to build out just one subdivision at a time.

In the rural part of the county, end-of-May figures showed a 12 percent increase in single-family building permits over last year, with a total of 115 permits for the year so far. However, 2003 was a particularly slow year for building. The last growth year was 2001, when 225 single-family permits had been issued by the end of May. As of press time, figures for June indicated that permit numbers would be about the same as in 2003.

"June, July and August are supposed to be our busy months," commented Karlin Mueller, office supervisor for the Larimer County Building Department. "People are saying things are turning around, but I'm just not seeing it in terms of construction."

Permits for remodels and additions continue to increase, a trend seen over the past three years. "That tells me that people are putting their money in the existing structures they have, instead of going out and building a new home," Mueller said.

A total of 218 permits for remodels and additions have been granted so far this year, up 23 percent from 2003.