CROWN POINT | Residential construction in the city is the healthiest it has been in five years, according to figures provided by the city's Planning and Building Department.
Building permits issued so far this year for single-family homes, condominiums and townhomes totaled 173 by mid-November, said Christopher Meyers, planning and building administrator.
With six weeks remaining before year end, "we're hoping we'll be getting more new homes and be able to break the 2007 number," Meyers said.
The city issued 172 single-family homes building permits in 2007, the last year before the bottom fell out of the housing market nationwide and locally. Townhome and condominium construction added another 56 new residences that year in Crown Point.
By year end 2008, the city had permitted only 72 new single-family homes, one townhome and no condominiums, according to information from the department.
The downturn followed a boom that peaked in 2005, when new single-family home construction alone hit 295 in Crown Point.
The residences permitted so far this year were spread among 13 subdivisions, including 25 in Ellendale Farm, with 23 single-family homes and two duplexes.
Hamilton Square counted permits for 19 townhomes and four condominiums. Twenty-one single-family homes were permitted in Schmidt Farms.
The total cost of residential construction through October — the most recent figure available — was $3.6 million.
The numbers appear to put the city on track to again outpace other nearby municipalities for the year.
Of cities and towns with numbers closest to Crown Point in 2011, Winfield issued a total 93 single-family home permits, St. John, 67, and unincorporated Lake County, 41, compared to Crown Point's 107, according to information from the Crown Point Planning and Building Department.
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