JerryBellune@yahoo.com

Local home builders expect 2020 to be their best year since 2007.

“Lexington County appears to be issuing permits at 140% of the average,” said Earl McLeod of the Building Industry Association of Central SC.

McLeod said he expects about 3,500 home building permits in Lexington, Richland and Kershaw counties based on the number filed.

The average during from 1998 to 2001 was 3,942.

“We still have about 450 permits to go to get back to where we were before the boom and bust cycle.

“Richland County continues to be the source of the shortfall, at about half of what it was producing from 1998 to 2001.”

Andy White, developer of Saluda River Club in Lexington, said the National Association of Home Builders reported 266,000 net building jobs were created in November, well above the fore-casted 150,000 jobs.

“The unemployment rate declined to 3.5%, matching a 50-year low, said NAHB economist Robert Dietz.

“Wage growth registered an above-inflation pace of 3.1%,” he said.

This shows support for gains for rental and for-sale housing demand.

Dietz said a weak spot was US home construction with a net loss of 500 jobs in November after adding 5,400 in October. But a skilled labor shortage and early winter weather in northern states in northern states affected that.

Home construction employment now stands at 2.9 million, with a gain of 47,400 in the last year.

For new US home sales to improve in 2020, single-family home construction rates must improve. For that to happen, lending for developers and home builders needs to pick up, he said.

A lack of available homes for sale remains challenging for 1st-time home buyers, especially millennials.

NAHB reported that 59% of single-family homes and 80% of apartments are built in counties with the most millennial residents.

Yet these counties lag behind the rest of the country in home construction.