Where is Albemarle Growing as of 1st Quarter 2008?

Albemarle County has released the 2008 First Quarter Building Report. Thus I have updated my previous analysis of where new building permits are being issued in the County.  These do NOT reflect all newly approved developments, but rather homes in developments previously approved where a building permit has now been issued.  ALSO, while the County's report includes ALL types of housing, my analysis is limited to single family detached (SFD) homes, as those are a leading indicator of future enrollment growth for Albemarle County Public Schools.

Looking back over the last twelve month period (April 2007-March 2008), SFD building permits were issued as follows in Albemarle's six magisterial districts:

94 (34.2%) in White Hall
62 (22.5%) in Scottsville
55 (20.0%) in Rivanna
37 (13.5%) in Samuel Miller
17 (6.2%) in Rio
10 (3.6%) in Jack Jouett

From my website you can download a historical view of this data by magisterial district (chart above). http://www.wheeleronboard.com/docs/2008Q1-BuildingReport-chart.pdf

For the SFD permits detailed above (last 12 months), the two largest sub-groups geographically were Albemarle's rural areas (65.09% of SFD permits) and the Crozet designated growth area (16.36% of SFD permits). HOWEVER, for building permits of all housing types in the County thus far in 2008 (127 permits in first quarter), 49 are in the rural areas, or 38.6%.  While the percentage in the rural area is a higher number this quarter, historically the total number of permits is low for this quarter and that skews the percentages.

Brian Wheeler