North Huntingdon leads region in new home construction
By Ron DaParma TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, February 4, 2007

North Huntingdon was the top community in the region for single-family home building last year, a survey shows.

The Westmoreland County community, where 170 permits were issued for single-family homes in 2006, supplanted Peters in Washington County, which had lead the way for new home construction in the region for two years.

Peters, with 131 housing permits, still managed to finish second on the list, compiled annually by Tall Timber Marketing, a Ross-based construction market research and tracking firm.

The firm's Top 10 list for 2006 contained many of the usual names for strong home-building activity, said Jeff Burd, the firm's founder.

Last year, it was North Huntingdon that came in second to Peters.

This year, Unity in Westmoreland County came in third, with 101 permits; followed by Pine and Franklin Park, Allegheny County, with 89 and 88 permits, respectively.

Next came North Strabane, Washington County, with 83; South Fayette, Allegheny County, and Adams, Butler County, with 78 permits each.

Rounding out the list were Cranberry, Butler County, with 72 permits, and Pittsburgh, with 69 single-family permits.

The fact that Cranberry was not higher on this year's list is somewhat unusual, but may be only an aberration, said Burd.

"I've been told that it's just because a couple of large subdivisions there that have been under development have been filling out," Burd said.

As that continues, more development is waiting to get started there, he said.

Also, Burd looks for another Butler County community, Lancaster, to appear in the Top 10 list soon.

"There are several developments there that could eventually have 1,000 new homes, but it depends on how fast they will be coming online," he said.

While the appearance of Cranberry further down on Tall Timber's list single-family list is unusual, so, too, is the fact that Slippery Rock in Butler County was the leader for multifamily construction, with permits for 322 units.

That's because of one large project there, he said, with Kiebler Properties, a Chardon, Ohio-based real estate developer, planning apartment-style housing for students.

Other top communities for multifamily building were Pittsburgh, last year's leader, with 260 units; Adams, with 129 units; Tarentum, with 112, and Pine, with 83.