New home construction appears to be slowing down considerably in Tooele County so far this year, mirroring state and national trends, according to industry experts.

Cindy Coombs, administrative assistant for the Tooele County Engineering Department, said that from the beginning of January to the end of March, Tooele County issued 70 building permits, with 33 of those being single-family dwellings -- a rate of approximately 23 new permits per month. To compare, 2007's full-year total for the county consisted of 478 permits issued, with 219 of those being single-family homes. That's a rate of approximately 40 new permits being issued per month.

However, Coombs cautioned that permits are typically down during winter and are bound to pick up with more reliable warm weather.

"It's too soon in the year to tell how well we're going to do compared to last year, but we should be getting pretty busy with building permits and home building this spring and summer because of the warmer weather," she said.

Burt Beacham, owner of Beacham Masonry and Construction, said his company had also seen a drop-off in work during the first months of 2008.

"Winter was pretty dead for me from about December to February, and I don't think I got even one phone call during that time," he said. "It didn't help that it was pretty cold during this past winter, and we also had those terrible windstorms. However, things are starting to pick up now that the weather has been better, and a couple of homes we're still building right now have already sold."

Even with the doom and gloom in the news media over nationwide housing markets, Beacham said there will be enough people out there this spring and summer who will be willing to purchase a newer home in Tooele County.

"There are several people out there who need a place to live and are sick of renting, and they'll be looking for a new house here," he said. "There are enough people out there who won't live their life in fear of what the market might do. I expect home building and the issuing of permits to pick up even more later this spring and in the summer."

The apparent slowdown in local homebuilding mirrors trends on the Wasatch Front. According to Construction Monitor, a Cedar City-based company which tracks building activity throughout the western United States, building permits along the Wasatch Front were down 74 percent for March 2008 in comparison with the number of permits issued in March 2007. The total of 289 single-family home permits issued in March is the lowest monthly total in at least 18 years.

Steve Griffith, associate broker for Prudential Utah Real Estate in Tooele, said that in general he has seen the real estate market stay pretty slow around November through February. He also said that it will usually start to pick up once the spring season really kicks in.

"Things are slower for a lot of factors, including the winter weather, holidays, taxes, high fuel prices for travelers, and people not wanting to spend money on a house around Christmas," Griffith said. "The market usually picks up around April or May when the weather gets nicer and people are getting their tax returns and wanting to invest in a home. I think we're really going to see things pick up next quarter."

One segment of the market that appears to be bucking the downward trend is townhomes, which are being built at an increasing rate, according to Coombs.

"We have a lot of townhomes coming out soon, most of which were just started this month," she said. "There are a lot of them going into a Stansbury Park development built by Ivory Homes that people have already turned in applications for. Stansbury Park is actually still growing pretty well."

Grantsville contractor Gordie Fields said the news media is partly to blame for the slowdown in home building.

"All the reports of slow markets nationwide have caused people here to be afraid of buying a home, and this has been going on since last fall," Fields said. "Because of that fear of buying, people also can't afford to put anymore homes on the market for fear that they will take too long to sell. However, it's actually still a good time to buy right now, with interest rates being at a record low, and enough people are wanting to sell their homes."

dougrad@tooeletranscript.com