Home building permits plunge in Pike County

January 14, 2014

The number of home building permits issued in Pike County in 2013 was the lowest in 31 years.

Just 74 were issued, making 2013 the only year since at least 1982 that fewer than 100 permits were issued.

That is compared to 1988, Pike's peak year, when 1,782 home building permits were issued. There was also another peak in 2004, when 1,121 permits were issued.

"This has been the worst home building recession we've been through," said Ed Nikles, founder of Milford-based Ed Nikles Custom Builder, which has been in business since 1963. "This has been the longest and worst downturn we have seen in our history."

Nikles says remodeling work has carried his business in lean years.

"When things were going gangbusters here in '06, '07, and '08, we were building 40 to 60 homes a year. Now we are trying to build six to 10 a year," Nikles said.

Nikles, 71, says the building market has cycles and builders must have financial reserves for when building slows.

"There are boom times and then it drops down. I've seen it at least three times before: in the early '90s; the early '80s and once in the '70s. It's almost a 10-year cycle," he said.

Nikles noted that the last boom cycle lasted longer than previous ones and the recovery is also taking longer than past recoveries. "We know it doesn't last forever," Nikles said.

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Home building permits plunge in Pike County