The City of Richland has shared some good news about development around town — numbers that seem to provide some more evidence that the economy (which was never really bad here in the first place) is stronger now than during the slowdown.

First, real estate development: The city says it’s already collected 58% of its projected revenue from building permit sources for 2010, and that’s just in the first five months of the year. By the end of May, 2009, the city had only collected 28% of its projected permit revenue. Here’s more:

New housing starts totaled 37 last month and 164 year-to-date, the highest year-to-date total since May 2002. The value of new commercial construction for May was 55% higher than May 2009. Plan reviews through May jumped 31% above the first five months of 2009, and inspections climbed about 22% over a year ago.

Second, utilities: The city says it has installed 201 new residential electrical services so far in 2010 (by the end of May), compared to only 115 through the first five months of 2009. That’s a 75% increase in 2010.

Very positive signs for the local real estate market and economy in general.

Postscript from Cari: Another good sign which corresponds with what you wrote above is the fact that so far, through May, there have been 164 single-family building permits issued in Richland. In all of 2009 there were 217, in ‘08 there were 229 and in ‘07 there were 292. If the trend seen so far this year continues, we might look at a final number closer to that of 2001. 383 total single-family permits for the city of Richland were issued that year, and 2001 was a great year for local real estate.

Thank you for reading this article on the Richland Real Estate Blog. If you arrived here looking for specific real estate information, or would like to speak with a friendly, fun, and professional real estate agent, please contact Cari via her web site or call her directly at 509 – 430 – 5342 and she’ll be glad to help. Thanks again for visiting!