New Home Construction Continues in Huntley

While new home construction has come to a standstill in most of McHenry County and Illinois, the village of Huntley is still seeing significant activity.

Huntley issued the most building permits in McHenry County in 2010 at 107. So far this year, Huntley has already issued 116 building permits through September, Village Manager Dave Johnson said.

“We think that’s a positive sign for the community. In these challenging economic times, folks are still interested in building in their communities,” Johnson said.

Johnson believes part of the reason for Huntley’s relative success is that the major builders in Huntley were part of established, national companies.

“Every builder building in Huntley survived the burst in the housing bubble,” he said.

Most of the building permits were issued in Sun City and Talamore. Johnson said one recent transaction was for a home that was $400,000 plus, a price that used to be the norm, but has become a rarity.

Building permitting for Sun City will come to an end in the near future as the active adult community is expected to be complete in 2012.

“It will be the end of an era, 5,730 permits later,” Johnson said referring to Sun City building.

“There are people coming into the market at 55 and older that creates a natural flow for purchases of homes in Sun City,” Huntley Trustee Harry Leopold said. “Talamore offers recreational facilities, the size of homes and quality of homes that appeal to young families that need to move to a larger home.”

Leopold noted that there has been significant commercial building activity in Huntley as well.

Huntley’s building boom peaked in 2003 when the village issued 1,209 permits, according to the US Census Bureau data. The low point was in 2009, with just 74 permits.

“There has been a significant impact in housing market here, like across the country. But we have a good inventory of existing lots with infrastructure in place,” Johnson said.

Other nearby towns are issuing just a handful of permits. According to the Census Bureau, in 2010, Crystal Lake issued 12 building permits; McHenry, 8; Lake in the Hills, 3; Algonquin, 2; and Cary, 1. The only other McHenry County town that came near Huntley in activity was Woodstock with 102 building permits.