Douglas and El Paso counties most active for single-family permits in 2012

Of the 8,255 new single-family permits issued during the first nine months of 2012, more than one-third of them (36 percent) were issued in El Paso and Douglas counties alone. According to new single-family September permit data by county, released by the Census Bureau, the counties with the largest numbers of single-family permits issued during the first six months of 2012 were El Paso, Douglas, and Larimer, Arapahoe, Weld and Denver counties. El Paso County reported more single-family permits than any other county with 1,783 permits.

See here for recent posts about building permits.

New single-family permits during January-September 2012
El Paso 1,783
Douglas 1,253
Larimer  835

Also:
Adams 544
Arapahoe 727
Boulder 201
Broomfield 82
Chaffee 77
Denver 773
Elbert 33
Jefferson 615
Mesa 265
Park 57
Pueblo 133
Routt 38
Teller 26
Weld 781

(Note: All permits discussed in this article are single-family permits.)

However, when permit totals are adjusted to the number of existing housing units in each county, the counties with the largest amounts of permit activity were Douglas, Weld and Chaffee counties.These three counties have reported the highest permitting rate for several months.

New single-family permits per household (x.001):

Douglas 12.3
Chaffee 10.9
Weld 8.7
Park 8.3
El Paso 7.9
Larimer 7.2
Mesa 4.5
Elbert 4.1
Broomfield 4.0
Routt 3.8
Adams 3.4
Arapahoe 3.2
Teller 2.9
Jefferson 2.8
Denver 2.8
Pueblo 2.1
Boulder 1.6

During the first nine months of 2012, the metro counties with few new single-family permits relative to the size of the existing stock are Pueblo, Jefferson, Denver, and Boulder counties.

It is also helpful to see which counties have shown the largest increases and decreases in permit activity. In the list below, we see that comparing January-September 2011 to January-September 2012, several metro counties reported year-over-year increases of 50 percent or more. No metro counties reported decreases.

Largest increases among metro counties:

Douglas 74 percent
Jefferson 74 percent
Weld 63 percent
Denver 46 percent

Smallest increases among metro counties:
Boulder 41  percent
Adams 29 percent
Mesa 21 percent

Also:
Larimer 48 percent
Broomfield 0 percent
El Paso 49 percent
Pueblo 0 percent
Arapahoe 50 percent