Putnam Construction Boom Not Stopping For Rising Costs

March was an all-time record month for single family home permits and construction costs in Putnam County.

Mayor Randy Porter said there were 52 permits worth $11.44 million, 39 of which were for single family homes. Porter said that despite rising construction costs, Putnam County is seeing a building boom as people leave the big cities.

“You have to remember this is all in the rural part of the county,” Porter said. “This doesn’t include Algood, Monterey, Baxter or Cookeville city, this is out in the rural part of the county. We’re seeing it all across the county and it’s all the way from Cumberland Cove in the Eastern end of the county to Buffalo Valley in the Western end of the county.”

Porter said the only thing he could see stopping the 2020-2021 fiscal year from breaking last year’s record is a contractor shortage from all the demand. He said that so far in this fiscal year there have been 284 permits for $45.9 million, and the county is averaging a new home being permitted every 1.5 days.

“We’re seeing subdivisions being created and developed and we’re seeing a lot of building going on inside of existing subdivisions,” Porter said. “And then there’s folks building houses just buying a couple 3 to 5 acres of land and then building homes.”

Porter said he saw a stat from U-Haul that showed Tennessee as a top three state that people are moving to. However, Porter said the county could experience some growing pains with the influx of new residents.

“Absolutely going to increase our tax base, it will be good for that,” Porter said. “But at the same time with all these folks moving here it’s going to cause an increase in the amount of people we have to service, as far as services for the county. So it’s going to be tough for us for a little while to try to keep up with the growth that is going on.”

The 2019-2020 fiscal year saw 357 permits for $49.6 million. Porter said that since he started tracking the data in 2015, the county has seen 1,116 new single family homes and total construction costs worth $253 million.