Permits show home building is solid in Kansas City region

The good news for home-building nationwide? New Census figures that show housing starts in May were up 4.3 percent over April. But the statistics are even better for a Kansas City market starving for housing inventory: Figures from the Kansas City Home Builders Association show that, even with the COVID-19 slowdown, monthly permits issued for construction of single-family homes in the eight core counties beat year-over-year figures for each of the first four months of 2020:

• January saw 355 permits issues, compared to 234 in January 2019.
• Permits peaked in February at 475, more than double the year-over-year figure, also 234, in 2019.
• Despite a pullback in March to 438, permitting was up 22.7 percent from March 2019.
• And in April, the first full month of COVID-19 restrictions on business activity, builders pulled 434 permits, up from 411 in April 2019.

Housing professionals caution that despite a return of builder confidence, there remains a long way to go before the nation sees that sector restored. But in its favor are record-low mortgage rates that are likely to remain that way into 2022, and a critical shortage of inventory. Complicating the road back is the challenge of reopening sites where work was stopped during the shutdowns, a process that industry leaders say can be more time-consuming than starting a project from scratch.