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Show Davis Building Increases By TOM BUSSELBERG Following the state as a whole, Davis County's construction con-struction activity showed an increase from January-March of 30 percent over the previous year, a recently released report re-port says. THE "UTAH Construction Report: 1981" outlining permit-authorized construction for the first quarter indicates activity around the state increased in-creased in all sectors especially especial-ly in the non-residential area. While the percentage of new dwelling units increased more than 42 percent for the entire county, there were vast differences differ-ences between cities. Most activity was in north Davis, where Clearfield and Layton lead the way with 72 and 96 units each. Kaysville recorded 13 while Farmington showed 16. Centerville 13 and Bountiful Bounti-ful 14. Activity rose in all of those cities over the previous year except Farmington. where a one-third drop was recorded. re-corded. WEST BOUNTIFUL had a 66.7 percent drop equalling Syracuse, but Clinton recorded re-corded a 71.4 percent decline. Woods Cross registered a 10 percent decline, and overall, south Davis showed an 8.2 percent per-cent drop but that was offset by a 66.4 percent north Davis increase. Based on construction value, even south Davis recorded re-corded a modest 4.3 percent increase while north Davis jumped 53.5 and the county averaged av-eraged 34.5 percent jump. NON-RESIDENTIAL construction con-struction was another story, with the two ends of the county changing roles. South Davis recorded a 243.5 percent increase in-crease while north Davis registered reg-istered a 43.5 percent decline. The county showed an overall increase, however, of 33.8 percent. per-cent. Total construction was valued at $17,616,300. for a 30 percent jump, with $10,032,100 recorded in the north and $7,584,200 in the south county. LOOKING AT the number of permit-authorized dwelling units. 103 single family were recorded in north Davis including: in-cluding: 24 in Clearfield. 44 in Layton. 10 each in Clinton and Sunset. 4 in Fruit Heights and 3 in Kaysville, South Weber and West Point. Eleven were recorded in Bountiful, 9 in Woods Cross. 8 in Farmington. 7 in Centerville, Centervil-le, 3 in West Bountiful and one in North Salt Lake. SINGLE FAMILY units continued to dominate residential re-sidential construction in the county, totalling 142 compared com-pared to 18 duplex units and 21 apartment buildings with 109 units. Duplexes were recorded in Kaysville with four, Layton with six and Farmington with eight. Clearfield registered 12 apartment buildings and 48 units, un-its, Layton six buildings and 45 units. Kaysville one and six and the same for Centerville and Bountiful one building with three units. Overall, just under half the residential units built in north Davis were single family while nearly 70 percent fell in that category in south county. As a whole, 52.8 percent were single sing-le family in the county. THREE PROJECTS in the county were valued at over $1 million, with all listed in January. Janu-ary. They included apartment projects in Layton for $1.35 million and $1.3 million in Bountiful and a $1.13 Clearfield Clear-field condominium project. In explaining activity in general gen-eral over the state, Kristin Stark, research assistant with the University of Utah's Bureau of Economic and Business Busi-ness Research, preparers of the report, said. "Single family unit construction is declining as a percent of total units authorized. au-thorized. "DURING THE first quarter in 1980. 1.986 permits were issued for new dwelling units un-its 71.6 percent of this went for single family homes compared com-pared to 68.7 percent during the first quarter of 1981. "Why hasn't the home-building home-building picked up? The answer is simply that mortgage rates are still too high." she continued, noting a sample of rates from three financial institutions insti-tutions showed they remained relatively unchanged staying around 15-16 percent. NON-RESIDENTIAL construction con-struction didn't follow that pattern, however, she noted. "The first quarter dollar valuation valua-tion for non-residential construction con-struction is the highest first quarter figure ever recorded: in fact, the amount is 60 percent per-cent above the first quarter of 1979 which ended with the highest non-residential dollar valuation in history." Two projects contributed heavily to that total. Ms. Stark says: a $15 million office building build-ing in Salt Lake County and $8.5 million hotel in Ogden. Twenty-six major projects valued at $66 million were authorized au-thorized this year vs. 15 at $25 million a vear aco. NON-RESIDENTIAL con struction makeup has changed little from 1980 with slight increases in-creases in church and industrial indust-rial construction w hile authorizations author-izations for hospitals, service stations and repair garages dropped a bit. Store and other mercantile building issuances have remained "relatively constant." she noted. Compared with the Intermountain Inter-mountain region of Arizona. Colorado. Idaho. Montana. Nevada. New Mexico. Utah and Wyoming, the state ranked rank-ed fourth for the total number of new dwelling units authorized autho-rized but percentagewise, the state ranked second behind Arizona, at 3.4 percent. HER FORECAST indicated a drop in mortgage rates by mid-year to allow for a pick-up in new residential construction while she said 1981 will be a record-breaking year for nonresidential non-residential construction if activity continues at its current pace. |