2023 Putnam Building Permits At Record High, Dollar Amount Falls Short

Putnam County received a record-setting 408 permits in 2023.

2023 beat last year’s record setting permits of 407. Building permits brought in $82 million in 2023, $8 million short of last year. Mayor Randy Porter said cost increases and other factors impacted the dollar amount brought in.

“We had one big commercial project back in 2022 that happened that added about five more million to that 2022 number,” Porter said. “So, when you take all that out, I think we had pretty close to the same year this year as we did last year.”

The last five months of the year saw a big increase in the number of permits coming in. December alone saw 25 permits submitted at a value of nearly $6 million. Porter said he hopes the county can ride that momentum into the new year.

“Interest rates jumped up so much in 2023 with the fed raising the rates so much,” Porter said. “You’ve already started seeing interest rates come down. I think they are down as much as a point, point-and-a-half from where they were a few months ago. If that continues to come down or to stay at least where they are and building prices, construction costs and materials and stuff doesn’t go up, I think you are going to see more of that.”

Revenue generated from the permits go toward general funds and the Codes Department. Permit numbers do not include constructions inside the city limits of Algood, Cookeville, Monterey and Baxter.

“It’s out in the rural part of the county not inside any of the cities, and it’s almost all residential this year,” Porter said. “We had a few commercial projects but no large ones. When you start comparing residential this year to residential last year, pretty close to the same. We’re still seeing residential construction remain strong in the county.”

Porter said the biggest growth the county has seen is in western Putnam in the areas surrounding Baxter. He said growth in the eastern part of the county has slowed. Porter said the increase in construction is also increasing the amount of more affordable houses being built.

“I think there’s a real need out there for more of that affordable housing, and over the past few months, I’ve been seeing more contractors start building those,” Porter said. “So, hopefully that’s going to take care of itself.”