Florida Home Builders Pull Single-Family House Permits in Lee County, Bonita Springs, Fort Myers

Builders in unincorporated Lee County, Bonita Springs and Fort Myers Beach pulled 318 permits for single-family houses in March, about 6 percent more than in February and 62 percent less than in March 2006, the county Department of Community Development reported Monday.

Cape Coral figures were not available Monday. In Fort Myers, 135 permits were issued, compared to 20 in February and 182 in March 2006.

The value of permits for single-family homes in the county was $81.1 million in March, compared to $73.3 million in February. In Fort Myers it was $14.9 million compared to $5.2 million in February.

About 73 percent of the single-family home permits in the county were for construction in Lehigh Acres, valued at about $46.8 million.

Over the past four months, the number of permits issued in the county has “just kind of flattened out,” said Mary Gibbs, head of community development, referring to the lack of Florida mortgage activity in the region. “We’re looking at the budget to figure out how much staffing we’ll need for next year. We’re going to monitor it and then see if it bottoms out and see if we can delete some positions.”

Right now, she said, “We’re at beginning of 2003 levels, but in 2003 it picked up toward the end of the year.”

Michael Reitmann, executive vice president of the Lee Building Industry Association, said the flat permitting numbers aren’t surprising in light of recent layoffs by local builders — most recently, Friday’s announcement by Centex Homes that it’s laying off half its work force, 141 employees, from Naples to Sarasota.

Underlying the lower numbers, he said, is the huge inventory of homes for sale,
which makes it less attractive for developers to build new ones.

SOURCE: The News-Press