It's too early for getting any hopes up, but some numbers show residential construction — new houses and apartments, that is — pepping up in Durham.
According to City Hall, 115 permits for 428 units were issued in April, for $46,744,185 worth of building. For the current fiscal year, new residential construction cost has been $186,163,351 — up from $159,448,182 this time a year ago, or a healthy 17 percent.
On another hand, though —
This time last year, the city had issued 49 building permits for new non-residential construction. That's well short of the current total of 64, but the projects permitted by April 30, 2010 were worth $220,780,695 while this year's total is just $40,494,969: a drop of 81 percent.
Total construction cost — new buildings, additions, renovations and so on — is up over 2010, though: $633,812,112 versus $630,544,266, or about 5 percent.
Glass half full, glass half empty, numbers are what you want to make of them. One thing good, though — at least somebody is working.
