Building New Homes in Tooele County

Building new homes in Tooele County means a lot of positive things for our community. Buying or selling your house? You need to read this!

The benefits of new construction in most cases is obvious. Among those are:

• Jobs, Jobs, and more Jobs
• Increases Tax base
• Impact Fees 
• Building permit Fees
• Local Ancillary Spending.

Keep those benefits in mind as you read Tim Gillies article in the Tooele Transcript about how the low housing inventory, plus lots of buyers has created a jump in homebuilding across the county. 

Here's what Gillie had to say.

New home construction took off in Tooele County last year, according to building permit numbers.

Tooele City, Grantsville City and Tooele County issued 414 permits for new single-family homes in 2015, up from 290 new single-family home permits issued in 2014. That’s a 43-percent increase.

Tim even interviewed me about the why it's happening part. This was my take on it.

A low inventory of existing homes and a high number of homebuyers stimulated new home building in 2015, according to Berna Sloan, president of the Tooele County Association of Realtors.

“Low interest rates and positive equity have a lot of people out looking to buy a home,” she said. “But the available inventory of existing homes doesn’t meet the demand.”

The largest percentage of increase was in Grantsville. Large lots, animal rights, and VERY competetive prices have made this area an exciting throwback to the days when homes were selling as fast as they could be built. See what Tim had to say about Grantsville UT

Grantsville experienced the largest growth, with 120 permits issued in 2015 compared to 50 in 2014 — a 144-percent increase.

“Grantsville is booming,” Sloan said. “They had several new developments ready for new homes last year.”

In Tooele City, the boom is back. At least for the short term. Take a look at these numbers

Tooele City issued more permits in 2015 than any year since 2007, according Jim Bolser, Tooele City Community Development Director.

However, Tooele City only had a 4-percent growth in single-family home building permits in 2015.

The 2015 number of single-family home building permits for Tooele City does not include 11 approved permits waiting to be picked up and another 21 permits that are in the review process, according to Bolser.

“We have, as of the end of February 2016, more than doubled the number of issued permits for the same time last year and still have another 31 permits in the pending category,” he said.

It's no surprise that Stansbury Park is contributing to this Real Estate turnaround. I can't understand why anyone looking to buy a home in the southern end of S.L. Valley would not choose this great golfcourse/Lake neighborhood instead. Just compare a new home built by Ivory Homes in Stansbury with any comparable Ivory home in the valley and see what nakes the most sense.

In Stansbury, the number of single-family building permits jumped from 87 in 2014 to 120 in 2015 — a 38-percent growth rate.

Stansbury is a popular location because of the proximity to Salt Lake County, according to Sloan.

Don't forget the more rural areas of the county Tom pointed out that (with my help).

On the south end of the county, 14 single-family home building permits were issued in 2015 by the county for South Rim south of Stockton, compared to four in 2014.

Sloan expects the new home market to continue to grow in 2016, as long as current conditions continue.

Finally, to recap, and to give you the bottom line. Mr Gillie has revealed all of the requirements necessary to make Tooele County a 'sellers market'. Note what he posted below.

In January 2016 the number of homes sold in Tooele County grew by 18 percent over January 2015, from 61 to 72. The number of new listings grew by 3 percent from 125 to 129 during the same time period.

The available inventory of homes in Tooele County shrunk from a 5.5 month supply in January 2015 to a 3.2 month supply in January 2016, according to January statistics recently released by the Utah Association of Realtors.

So,

If you are a seller, now may be the time to list your home, It has been years since the numbers favored the owners/sellers.

If you are a buyer; now is the time. An uptick in interest rates can reverse this trend overnight. Nedd help with all of this,? Give me a call. ; Berna Sloan 435-840-5029.

I know a lot about building new homes in Tooele County.