Detroit leads in building permits

[GRDadof3]

I saw this article in the GR Press and didn't see it posted yet. This is fantastic!

Detroit led area in housing permits last year

2/14/2006, 10:39 a.m. ET

The Associated Press

DETROIT (AP)

[RustTown]

To tell you the truth, it's really spread out. But if I had to guess on plurality, I would say that many of these are going up in the greater Midtown area (Core-City Neighborhoods), though.

With that said, there is a great deal of housing going up on the Far Eastside, and when (or if) all of the infills are completed, it will have been either the largest or one of the largest infill projects ever completed in the United States.

[wolverine]

Wow, that's great. It almost seems hard to believe from what I've seen. Sometimes, I take the scenic way into Detroit and pass through Canton along Ford Road. You see all those huge new homes going up in those brand new subdivisions, which makes it difficult to think that an identical number of structures are thus under construction in the city. Go Detroit!

[RustTown]

It shouldn't be hard to believe when you consider that Detroit is 139 square miles, and thus has much more area to spread these new houses over. You have to ask yourself questions like "how often and I on the far eastside or westside or northwest...?" I mean, I sure hope that Detroit, this far into its push for revitalization has this many units coming on line in the city last year.

I do have a question, though, that I can't even find an answer to on detroit.com which was asked when a similar article came out last year for a certain month: does this also include renovations? If not, it would definitely be more impressive.

[ZachariahDaMan]

Wow, that's great. It almost seems hard to believe from what I've seen. Sometimes, I take the scenic way into Detroit and pass through Canton along Ford Road. You see all those huge new homes going up in those brand new subdivisions, which makes it difficult to think that an identical number of structures are thus under construction in the city. Go Detroit!

I live in Canton and it's crazy how many new houses are going up all the time. We use to have the lead in the area for building permits but for some reason in 2005 there wasn't as many as normal. It's still pretty impressive that a town of 36 square miles is getting so many permits when there are many other cities around that are much larger.

[hudkina]

Before Canton TWP and Macomb TWP it was Sterling Heights and Livonia. Pretty soon it'll be some new farflung township.

[ZachariahDaMan]

I wouldn't be surprised to see some Livingston County towns in the lead someday.

[GRDadof3]

It shouldn't be hard to believe when you consider that Detroit is 139 square miles, and thus has much more area to spread these new houses over. You have to ask yourself questions like "how often and I on the far eastside or westside or northwest...?" I mean, I sure hope that Detroit, this far into its push for revitalization has this many units coming on line in the city last year.

I do have a question, though, that I can't even find an answer to on DetroitYes.com which was asked when a similar article came out last year for a certain month: does this also include renovations? If not, it would definitely be more impressive.

The 1039 permits that the article is referring to are "new home permits". That does not include renovations, which would probably add quite a few more to that number. Many people do renovations without a permit if they are not doing any structural/electrical changes (sometimes even then ). Suburban new home permits have been soft throughout the State this past year.

IMO, I think true revitalization occurs at the "neighborhood center" level, not only when new high-rises go up or stadiums are built. That's why I think this might be the biggest news of the year for Detroit, even bigger than the SuperBowl (yet not many people realize it). That's why I was wondering if there were any particular neighborhood centers that stood out the most.

[Ramcharger]

http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.ph...ndpost&p=332990

[hudkina]

I can believe it. I see new housing all over the city. They may not be in large clusters, and they may not be of the best quality, but they are there.

These are in the East Village

These are near the West Village:

These are both near St. Anne's in Southwest Detroit:

These are in Midtown:

They all weren't built in 2005, but they are just a handful of the thousands of new units that have been built in the last 5 years.

[detroitfan]

When you think about it there has been plenty new housing projects Jefferson Village, Woodbridge Estates, Centurion Place, the North Corktown infill. Add in all the renovated units and we're talking a very impressive year