By Michelle Price
Special to the UCBJ
PUTNAM COUNTY – Residential construction in rural Putnam County set an all-time record in FY21 with permits totaling over $61 million. This was an increase of 23% over the previous record of $49.61 million set in FY20.
Of the 382 permits issued, 243 were for single family homes. Since January 2015, there have been 1,260 new single family homes built out in the county. These numbers do not include any construction inside the city limits of Algood, Baxter, Cookeville or Monterey.
“What a great year our county has experienced with new building construction,” said Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter. “With all the negatives of the tornado, pandemic and ice storm, we are still flourishing and growing. We live in a great community, and I’m very thankful for the good growth we are seeing.”
Permits were down in June, with only 26 permits issued for a total of $3,848,100. This continues the slight month-after-month decrease that has occurred since March when permits peaked at 52 permits totaling $11,445,470. This could likely be attributed to the scarcity of many building materials and the drastic increase in the cost of available building materials.
