Grundy Reporter

As Americans sheltered in place during the worst months of the COVID-19 crisis there was a 20-percent drop in new housing construction permits, representing a $4.4 billion decline in construction spending.

According to a new report by the U.S. Census Bureau, residential construction in the Northeast took the biggest hit from the pandemic while the South had a much lower drop. In the Northeast, permits declined by 52.2 percent but in the South, there was only a 7.6 percent drop, The Center Square reported.

The study compared permits in April 2020 to those in the same month in 2019.

Year over year, New York had the biggest hit, dropping 71.3 percent. Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania also saw big declines. Some individual communities saw new permits basically disappear. Bridgeport-Stamford in Connecticut and Kennwick-Richland in Washington, for example saw drops of more than 85 percent. Even California’s San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara are saw permits drop by 44.4 percent.

On the other side of the spectrum, some states saw residential building permits actually increase. Those were states with large rural populations such as Alabama, Arkansas, Maine, Mississippi, North Dakota and West Virginia, the story said.

“A dramatic decline in new housing unit authorizations now indicates that there will be a prolonged slowdown in new home construction in the coming months,” the story said. “The average time between permit issue and the start of construction is about 1-2 months.”

How long will it take for housing construction to get back up to pre-COVID levels.

“It remains uncertain,” The Center Square reported.

The pandemic slowed all types of residential construction including completion of houses that had already been started. However, future construction projects, as reflected by building permits, fell more than completion of existing projects.