New housing boomed in the Butler County region this fall. What does that mean for 2020?

Those consecutive double-digit increases helped to improve sluggish permits for the first half of the year, according to Dan Dressman, the HBA’s executive director.

“We anticipate that the last two months of the year will demonstrate similar gains, and we will end 2019 in positive territory,” Dressman said. “Next year promises to be an excellent year for home builders, due to healthy consumer confidence, low-interest rates, and high employment levels.”

MORE: Why a national expert says southwest Ohio needs to build more homes

The Home Builders Association of Greater Cincinnati represents residential construction interests in Brown, Butler, Clermont, Clinton, Fayette, Hamilton, Ross and Warren counties.

Three of the four counties tracked by the HBA showed improvement in October: Butler was up 8.3 percent, Clermont was up 34.2% and Warren was up 36.8 percent. Permits were flat in Hamilton County.

Consecutive month increases pushed overall permits up 0.7 percent through October over the same period in 2018. Warren County was up 3 percent, and Clermont County was up 5 percent year to date, while Butler County was down 1.8 percent and Hamilton County was down 4.6 percent.

If November and December can continue the positive trending numbers of October and September, it’s possible that single-family home permits could bounce back from being down 3.2 percent when the market cooled due primarily to rising interest rates and labor and material costs, Dressman said.

MORE: Butler County market seeing a lift in home sales, new construction

The slowdown allowed builders to finish homes already under contract, which had been delayed due to the labor shortage.

Liberty Twp. continued to lead all local jurisdictions with 234 single-family permits through October. The remainder of the top 10 markets in the four-county Southwest Ohio region through October 2019 included Hamilton Twp. (Warren County) and Batavia Twp. (Clermont ), both with 131; Clearcreek Twp. (Warren ), 176; Deerfield Twp. (Warren ), 155; Mason (Warren ), 107; Village of South Lebanon (Warren ), 96; Cincinnati (Hamilton County), 88; Franklin Twp. (Warren ), 82: Harrison (Hamilton ), 81; Miami Twp. (Clermont ), 80.

Butler County’s top five includes Liberty Twp., Monroe (57 permits), Hamilton (46), West Chester Twp. (43) and Fairfield Twp. (42). Warren County’s is Deerfield Twp. (155), Hamilton Twp. (131), Clearcreek Twp. (126), Mason (107) and South Lebanon (96).