New home construction in Connecticut rose by 14 percent in 2014, with single-family houses leading the way, a new report Wednesday shows.

Permits for single-family houses, condominiums and apartment units rose to 4,603 last year, compared with 4,027 for 2013. The levels of building were the highest since 2008, when 4,910 housing units were authorized by cities and towns, according to the report from the state Department of Economic and Community Development.

Norton C. Wheeler III, president of the Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Connecticut, said Wednesday that new residential construction last year showed promising gains, though there is still a way to in the industry's recovery in the state.

"This is the highest since 2008, but make no mistake that it is still less than half of what we were doing in 2004," Wheeler, owner of the Mystic River Building Co. in Mystic, said. "We're all surprised at the slow pace of the recovery, but the most important part is that we are recovering."

Wheeler noted that construction of single-family houses led the way, followed by building of multifamily structures with five or more units. Two years ago, it was just the opposite, amid a boom in rentals.

Wheeler said rising rental rates are starting to make homeownership more attractive, especially for first-time home buyers.

"Builders are starting to gain confidence themselves that there is a market for the single-family home," Wheeler said.

New home construction fell to a decades low in 2011 but turned around the next year. The levels are still well below the 9,000 to 10,000 units a year that Connecticut's residential construction industry considers a healthy building market.

Wednesday's report is based on a monthly survey of 128 municipalities conducted by the U.S. Census. Once a year, all 169 towns and cities are surveyed for an annual tally.

Typically, monthly and annual counts have closely tracked each other in past years, but that wasn't the case in 2013. The monthly survey showed a decline of 2.7 percent and the annual tally showed a gain of 16.2 percent.

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Home Construction Up 14% Last Year

EDGEWATER, N.J. (CBSNewYork) Two tenants of an apartment complex in Edgewater, New Jersey that was mostly destroyed in a fire have filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of all residents.

The suit, filed this week in Bergen County Superior Court, seeks damages for economic and property losses from the massive fire at the Avalon at Edgewater complex last week.

The five-alarm blaze destroyed 240 units, permanently displacing 500 residents and temporarily displacing another 520 residents from surrounding buildings.

Our clients have been displaced, many of them from their homes. Many of them have lost everything that was in their homes, attorney Bruce Greenberg, with the firmLite DePalma Greenberg, told 1010 WINS. The lawsuit includes not only people who lived at the Avalon but people who live in the neighborhood and were damaged by the fire as well.

The suit alleges that Avalons property managers initially told residents there was a minor fire in the complex nearly two hours after the fire first started.

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For a short time, building employees were telling residents at the time that the fire didnt seem serious, Greenberg said. Two hours after the fire was first reported, Avalon sent an email to tenants saying that there was, what Avalon called, a minor fire in the complex. In fact, of course, it was a fire that was visible across the river in New York.

While no people died in the blaze, the suit says the fire claimed the lives of many pets and destroyed other irreplaceable items.

It was filed by Robert Loposky and Richard Kemp, who were both residents at the complex, according to the suit. It says Loposky lost all of his personal belongings, including his dogs. It says Kemp also lost all of his personal belongings.

The suit names Maryland-based AvalonBay Communities Inc. as the defendant as well as unknown entities and individuals that may be responsible for and/or may have participated in the improper activities of defendant AvalonBay.

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Tenants File Class Action Lawsuit In Wake Of Massive Fire At Edgewater, NJ Apartment Complex

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EDGEWATER, N.J., Jan. 23 (UPI) -- A fire that devastated a luxury apartment building was ruled to be an accidental result of construction repairs gone wrong.

The fire started when workers were doing plumbing repairs, and spark spread through the walls and the building. Questions surround why the fire was able to spread so quickly and do such severe damage. Gov. Chris Christie said there will be a review to see if the building was up to code. Avalon, the company that owns the complex, said it was built to code, which is focused on saving lives rather than the building.

"There was nothing suspicious about it, and we have complete verification, and there's no doubt about it," said Edgewater Police Chief William Skidmore. "It's just a tragic accident."

Five hundred people are homeless as a result. The fire started Wednesday evening and by Thursday morning 200 of the 408 units were up in smoke.

There are no missing persons but several pets are believed to have died.

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Luxury apartment fire that displaced hundreds sparked by plumbing repair

EDGEWATER, N.J. (WABC) --

"I don't think we've got much more time in here," said a firefighter over radio transmission.

For the first time, Eyewitness News has obtained the desperate radio transmissions as firefighters rushed to evacuate the Avalon at Edgewater.

They used a ladder to bash in apartment windows in a last ditch attempt to vent the building. And then, there was the blaring of air horns. The universal sign it's time for even the rescuers to run for safety.

Minutes later, the inferno would be ravaging nearly the entire complex, which then disintegrated piece by burning piece.

"Being homeless in a couple of hours, it's horrible. You can't imagine. You left everything inside and you don't know what's going to happen," said Uzeyir Karabiyik, a resident.

The images are seared on the minds of Uzeyir Karabiyik and his family. And they are the lucky ones. They still have a home in the so-called River building. It was the only part of the complex to emerge intact.

"We have started the process of allowing people to get their lives back together and turning towards normalcy as to what we can call normal," an official said during a press conference.

This is not normal.

Two neighbors from Scranton, Pennsylvania had their trucks stuffed with donations from friends and drove 120 miles there to drop it off.

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Hundreds displaced in New Jersey apartment building fire; ruled accidental

Londons affordable housing investment will pay for about 15 percent fewer properties than it would have three years ago because of soaring construction costs, consulting firm EC Harris LLP said.

The city government will spend 1.25 billion pounds ($1.89 billion) constructing 45,000 affordable homes in London through 2018. If it had been invested in 2012, when the construction market was at a low point, the money London is spending now would have built 6,300 extra homes and created 2,000 jobs a year, Mark Farmer, head of EC Harriss residential team, said in a report.

It is surely a common-sense philosophy to maximize the expenditure of public money when you can get more bang for your buck, Farmer said. Some major infrastructure programs such as Crossrail have proceeded on this basis during the depths of the recession, but it would appear publicly funded or subsidized housing has not.

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne cut spending on housing for the countrys poorest by 60 percent from 2011 through 2015 as he focused on reducing Britains budget deficit. The number of social and affordable homes completed in England fell by almost 30 percent in fiscal 2014 from three years earlier, according to government statistics.

Bricklayers stand on scaffolding as they work on the "Catford Green" residential apartment complex during construction in the Catford district of London. Much of the U.K.s low-cost housing is funded today by private developers through levies paid in return for having their projects approved. Close

Bricklayers stand on scaffolding as they work on the "Catford Green" residential... Read More

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Bricklayers stand on scaffolding as they work on the "Catford Green" residential apartment complex during construction in the Catford district of London. Much of the U.K.s low-cost housing is funded today by private developers through levies paid in return for having their projects approved.

Every pound spent on homebuilding results in a 2.75-pound benefit for the economy, meaning the government should spend more on housing when the economys weak, Farmer said.

Much of the U.K.s low-cost housing is funded today by private developers through levies paid in return for having their projects approved. That means affordable housing construction moves up and down with the private market, when it should be doing the opposite, Farmer said

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How U.K.s Austerity Cost London 6,300 Affordable Homes

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January 22, 2015, 7:01 AM Last updated: Thursday, January 22, 2015, 11:40 PM

A massive fire that raged for hours on Wednesday night, reducing a luxury Edgewater apartment complex to a pile of charred rubble and leaving more than 500 homeless, started with a blowtorch that was being used to fix a leaking pipe, officials said on Thursday.

CHRIS PEDOTA/staff photographer

Police Chief William Skidmore said workers were using a torch while fixing a leak and doing plumbing repairs when the fire started.

Maintenance workers who were doing plumbing repairs in the 408-unit Avalon at Edgewater complex initially tried to tamp down the flames themselves on Wednesday afternoon, waiting 15 minutes before they called 911, officials said. Nearly 24 hours later, after what turned into a grueling night for hundreds of firefighters battling one of the largest blazes in Bergen County history, the destruction of the building where the fire began was nearly complete.

TARIQ ZEHAWI / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Smoke still rises from the apartment complex as firefighters from many departments continue to pour water onto the site.

TARIQ ZEHAWI / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Firefighters from many departments continue to pour water onto the fire site.

NBC New York

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Officials: Edgewater apartment complex fire accidentally caused by workers (video]

January 22, 2015, 6:58 PM Last updated: Thursday, January 22, 2015, 10:40 PM

The type of construction firefighters faced while battling a massive blaze at an Edgewater apartment complex this week is common in New Jersey and elsewhere, and one that many say raises challenges and concerns because of the potential for collapse and for flames to travel swiftly.

So-called lightweight wood construction in multistory buildings is a longstanding issue in the firefighting community a cheaper, faster and legal style of building that some have been saying for years needs better checks and balances.

Related: How to help those displaced by Edgewater fire

Mobile users, click here to watch video.

Related: Officials: Blow torch used by workers sparked Edgewater apartment complex fire

Photos: 5-alarm blaze destroys Edgewater apartments

Officials said the destroyed Edgewater building had lightweight construction with a truss style of roof framing. The owners of the building, AvalonBay Communities, said the building was built according to code.

Its all over the state of New Jersey. Its toothpick construction. You can see fires all over the county; once they get started its very difficult or impossible to stop, said Charles Aughenbaugh, past president of New Jersey Deputy Fire Chiefs Association, adding that firefighters did a terrific job getting people out and ultimately saving all lives.

David Kurasz, executive director of the New Jersey Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board, said the fact that there were no fatalities is a miracle, given the magnitude of the fire.

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Buildings lightweight structure, legal and common, adds fuel to raging Avalon fire

January 22, 2015, 7:01 AM Last updated: Thursday, January 22, 2015, 11:40 PM

A massive fire that raged for hours on Wednesday night, reducing a luxury Edgewater apartment complex to a pile of charred rubble and leaving more than 500 homeless, started with a blowtorch that was being used to fix a leaking pipe, officials said on Thursday.

CHRIS PEDOTA/staff photographer

Police Chief William Skidmore said workers were using a torch while fixing a leak and doing plumbing repairs when the fire started.

Maintenance workers who were doing plumbing repairs in the 408-unit Avalon at Edgewater complex initially tried to tamp down the flames themselves on Wednesday afternoon, waiting 15 minutes before they called 911, officials said. Nearly 24 hours later, after what turned into a grueling night for hundreds of firefighters battling one of the largest blazes in Bergen County history, the destruction of the building where the fire began was nearly complete.

TARIQ ZEHAWI / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Smoke still rises from the apartment complex as firefighters from many departments continue to pour water onto the site.

TARIQ ZEHAWI / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Firefighters from many departments continue to pour water onto the fire site.

NBC New York

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Officials: Blow torch used by workers sparked Edgewater apartment complex fire (video]