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Published on: 5/23/2008
Last Visited: 5/23/2008
"I think what's happening is there's a pretty good inventory of lots available," said John Owings, the county's manager of current planning.
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Five either left or announced they were leaving in 2007, Owings said, but most didn't cease operations until the fourth quarter.
They left about 20 subdivisions in various stages of development.Local builders and developers generally find it less expensive to buy lots left in subdivisions and ready to build on than to start a new one from scratch, Owings said.
He predicts the volume of preliminary lots will pick up again rather quickly because of the county's growing population.He said recent expansion announcements from companies such as BMW, Fluor, and GE are bringing even more people to Greenville.
At the same time, in the past quarter, the planning staff has seen more rezoning requests for multi-family projects than it has in more than a year.
The upswing in multi-family construction generally precedes an upswing in single-family housing, Owings said.