Housing starts up in New Ulm in '01

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Whatever shortcomings 2001 may have had, it was a banner year for home building in New Ulm.

A total of 27 building permits were issued for single-family houses and four for multi-family residences during 2001. Total value of the single-family dwellings was $4,094,000, and the multi-family residence permits amounted to $788,000.

For single-family houses, the number built represented a 69 percent increase over 2000 when 16 were built and a 50 percent increase over 1999 when 18 were erected.

The total value of single-family homes built in 2001 more than doubled the value of those built in 2000 ($1,895,000) and nearly doubled those built in 1999 ($2,194,000).

The four multi-family residences were the first built in the past three years.

Industrial and commercial building did not fare quite as well.

While there were four project starts in December totaling $692,408 in value, a total of 30 permits with a value of $5,564,658 were issued in 2001.

While that is nearly 30 percent reduction in permits issued from both 2000 (42) and 1999 (43), total value for 2001 was almost half that of 2000 ($10,336,578), but it exceeded 1999's total of $5,386,420 by $178,238.

Overall, the 460 building permits issued during 2001 were down 10.2 percent from 2000 when 512 were issued and almost 31 percent down from 1999's total of 666.

The total value of permits issued in 2001 was $12,995,458 which was about $2 million less than the $15,079,909 value in 2000; however, the 2001 total was $2.3 million more than the total value of $10,646,320 recorded in 1999.

The 13 permits issued for last December had a total value of $747,408, including the four industrial and commercial project starts and nine addition and repairs permits totaling $55,000. This compares with 13 permits issued in 2000 valued at $3,671,074 and nine in 1999 valued at $426,000.

The city's take from the 460 permits issued in 2001 was $99,587.25.