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February 19, 2008
By: Susan Erler
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Lake County Housing Permits Buck National Trend |
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Excerpts from this article are noted below
Close to 2,000 new housing units, from apartments and condos to show-stopper mansions, had been entered onto planning books or were built in Cedar Lake over the past decade, most in the last few years.
Countywide, there were about 425 fewer single-family home starts last year compared to 2006, but the slide was less severe than in many parts of the nation and fell short of the nation's 30 percent decline.
"In residential construction, our area continues to outpace what's happening across the nation," said Todd Olthof, whose family-run Olthof Homes has projects in the Hamilton Square and Covington subdivisions in Crown Point, as well as in other parts of the region.
Migration from across the Illinois state line continues to drive the market, Olthof said, with buyers attracted by relatively lower taxes, as well as the lifestyle and amenities the region offers, Olthof said.
"Many buyers find out their friends have moved here and they come here to join them," Olthof said.
Northwest Indiana's housing market for the most part bucked a nationwide trend last year by holding onto housing values.
In July, the median selling price of a home in the region stood at $154,900, a 7.1 percent climb from $144,575 the previous year.
"Our housing values have stayed stable," said Peter Novak, executive director of the Greater Northwest Indiana Association of Realtors.
The housing boom has attracted retail and commercial development to Lake County, from the massive Cabela's outdoor sporting goods store on the north end of U.S. 41 in Hammond to a pair of lifestyle-designed shopping centers farther south on U.S. 41 in Schererville.
Where new rooftops have popped up, restaurants, grocers and other retailers have followed, building new locations across the county, including more than a dozen new bank branches.
The value of permits for commercial and industrial construction totaled an estimated $120 million last year in Crown Point alone, according to the city's planning department.
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