After falling sharply in the fourth quarter of last year, residential and commercial building permit activity in Volusia County has risen for two consecutive quarters.
Rick Michael, director of Volusia County’s Division of Economic Development, said the increase in residential activity for two quarters in a row suggests the downturn in the fourth quarter of last year may have been a bottoming out of the area’s housing market, which has been in a slump since early 2006.
“The second-quarter numbers were very strong in comparison to the fourth quarter of last year for both residential and commercial projects,” said Michael. “It looks as though the residential market hit bottom in the fourth quarter of 2007, stabilized in the first quarter of 2008, and now we’re seeing the first signs of recovery in the second quarter this year. We’re starting to see a modest upward trend, but we’re still a long way from where we were in 2004 and 2005 when the market for new home construction was booming in Volusia County. We’re starting to head back in the right direction.”