As September ends, the construction trend in Putnam County holds true to form maintaining a downward trend that has plagued the housing market the previous several months in the county and nationally. September brought 30 permits worth 7.7 million dollars in construction, down from last year in Sept. when when 49 permits were issued for $8.2 million.
Twenty of those permits were for new single family residential homes. In June of this year the county issued 51 permits, but that number has steadily decreased every month since. The average price of the homes permitted in September was $321,900, compared to September 2021 which was $285,875.
Tumbling housing permits is not a local issue alone. According to tradingeconomics.com, permits in the US tumbled 10% to an annualized rate of 1.517 million in August of 2022. That is well below the market expectations of 1.61 million. The number of building permits is a good indication of the future of the housing market. It was the biggest drop since April 2020 and the lowest level since June 2020.
Local numbers provided by Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter and are for the county only. They do not include the four cities in the county.
Here is a calendar year comparison by month:
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |||||
| Permits | Total Amount | Permits | Total Amount | Permits | Total Amount | Permits | Total Amount | |
| January | 16 | 2,750,000 | 21 | 2,164,000 | 21 | 6,259,335 | 28 | 8,516,500 |
| February | 10 | 1,216,000 | 12 | 2,106,000 | 14 | 1,794,700 | 39 | 7,960,443 |
| March | 31 | 5,005,500 | 37 | 4,988,300 | 52 | 11,445,470 | 30 | 6,355,500 |
| April | 35 | 4,246,600 | 40 | 4,989,299 | 40 | 6,648,166 | 46 | 9,177,568 |
| May | 28 | 3,675,000 | 38 | 6,005,175 | 32 | 4,588,000 | 39 | 6,575,375 |
| June | 32 | 4,114,400 | 54 | 7,986,208 | 26 | 3,848,100 | 51 | 15,624,742 |
| July | 28 | 4,043,700 | 44 | 6,130,500 | 26 | 3,306,000 | 41 | 9,911,325 |
| August | 28 | 4,093,500 | 38 | 5,666,600 | 26 | 4,066,823 | 31 | 6,679,000 |
| September | 26 | 3,656,585 | 30 | 3,120,440 | 49 | 8,220,500 | 30 | 7,751,000 |
| October | 37 | 4,461,300 | 37 | 4,636,482 | 38 | 7,145,878 | ||
| November | 23 | 3,625,500 | 28 | 3,111,200 | 35 | 7,481,500 | ||
| December | 13 | 1,492,600 | 20 | 3,772,000 | 29 | 5,023,100 | ||
| TOTALS | 307 | $42,380,685 | 399 | $54,676,204 | 388 | $69,827,572 | 335 | 78,551,453 |
