Johnson County leads the KC area in new housing starts by a long shot

Residential construction in the Kansas City area is enjoying its best year since 2007, with Johnson County leading the way.

Single-family builders pulled 4,732 permits for new construction year-to-date in 2016 at the end of October, which already outpaced the overall total for 2015 with two months left to go, according to data from the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City.

Johnson County led the way in both the single-family and multifamily sectors. Through October, 1,436 single-family construction permits were issued in Johnson County.

In addition, 1,777 permits for multifamily construction have been issued in Johnson County through the end of October.

Jackson County, by comparison, has issued 841 permits for single-family housing and 837 for multifamily units.

The data suggest that growth in Johnson County and other suburbs remains strong.

“I think part of it is people getting their debt under control and being able to go out and afford to buy a house,” said Harold Phelps, president of Phelps Engineering in Olathe and incoming president of the local HBA chapter.

The most permits for single-family housing in any city in the area went to the Clay County portion of Kansas City, Mo., with 669 housing starts issued so far this year. That compares with 69 single-family permits for the Jackson County portion of Kansas City and 114 for the Platte County area of Kansas City.

Phelps anticipated that housing development in the suburbs would continue to grow, even as multifamily housing development in downtown Kansas City continue to boom.

“I think eventually they end up back in the suburbs to raise their families,” Phelps said.

This story was originally published November 23, 2016 at 11:32 AM with the headline "Johnson County leads the KC area in new housing starts by a long shot."