Aspen Building Permit Values Tank -47% for Year, ADN

The value of building permits issued in Aspen this year is down 47 percent through Dec. 10, signaling an end to a significant eight-year building boom.Since 2000, the city of Aspen has issued 5,172 residential and commercial building permits valued by the city at $1.6 billion, involving more than 6 million square feet of either new or remodeled building space.But a global economic slowdown is under way, and developers, contractors, and construction workers are straining to see where next year’s job sites may be.
By Brent Gardner-Smith, Dec 15, 2008, Aspen Daily News

So far in 2008, building permits issued have a value of $135 million. That’s down from 2007, which saw $255 million in permits, and way down from 2006, which saw a record $300 million worth of building permits issued. And that doesn’t include the $366 million in Pitkin County building permits issued in the last three years nor the $1 billion value of the Snowmass Base Village being built by Related WestPac.

This decade’s building boom is neatly traced in the city’s building permit valuations, which climbed each year from 2000 until 2006 — save for a one-year dip in 2002 caused by  the post 9/11 slump and perhaps the lingering effects of the high-tech bubble burst.

“I think these figures are impressive in how long they have held up at a reasonably high level,” said Ken Simonson, chief economist at Associated General Contractors of America, who publishes a detailed analysis of the national construction market.

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