MEDINA – Area home builders appear poised for another relatively strong year based on the number of building permits issued around the county.

The Medina County Building Department issued permits for 28 new homes in February. That’s more new home permits than it’s issued in February in any year since 2007 when it issued 36. However, the new numbers don’t approach the pre-recession building boom in Medina County when the county issued 66 new home building permits in February 2006 and went on to issue 749 new home permits that year.

More new home building permits were issued by the cities of Brunswick, Wadsworth and Medina in February. The Wadsworth Building Department issued permits for five new homes in February. Brunswick issued permits for 13 new homes. Even Medina, which has little undeveloped land in the city, issued permits for two new homes in February.

Montville Township remains at the heart of new home construction in our area. The county issued 10 more permits for new Montville homes in February. Builders were issued permits for nine new Montville homes in January.

Builders are also showing new interest in Lafayette Township and received permits for six new homes there in February.

In addition, three new home permits were issued in February for building projects in Sharon Township and two were issued for Guilford, Liverpool and Medina townships.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that privately-owned housing starts in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,288,000. This is 3.0 percent above the revised January estimate of 1,251,000.

Charles Huber, Medina County’s chief building inspector, estimates the average construction cost of new homes issued permits by his department in February at $303,000, up from the $277,000 average cost of the 430 homes issued permits in 2016.

The value of all residential construction receiving building permits from the county was about $15.6 million in the first two months of 2017. That far outpaces the value of commercial construction projects getting permits from the county. Huber estimates the value of those commercial projects at $2.9 million.

The county issued building permits for only three commercial projects in February. The combined value was $212,700. That’s down 89 percent from February 2016 but a better month for commercial construction in January ($2.7 million) left the total value of commercial construction so far this year down about 21 percent from January and February of 2016.