Year to date, the number of residential building permits pulled in Arlington and Lakeland is on pace to increase this year, while Bartlett’s totals are tracking lower than anticipated compared to 2021.
Skyrocketing material costs, labor shortages and other COVID-related challenges resulted in fewer housing permits pulled in 2021. Municipal officials in the northeastern Shelby County suburbs were not sure what to expect this year, but they were hoping that trend would reverse.
Arlington
So far this year, 75 building permits have been pulled for new homes in Arlington, already slightly higher than the 74 residential housing permits pulled for all of last year (and 152 in 2020).
“A lot of the activity has to do with the number of lots available in Arlington, and we were waiting on several phases of subdivisions to have their infrastructure complete so that they could start issuing permits,” said Town Administrator Cathy Durant, who expects around 100 permits to be pulled by year’s end.
Waiting on infrastructure affected two phases of the 550-home The Villages at White Oak off Milton Wilson Boulevard, as well as two new phases in the 145-home Myers Park development off Memphis-Arlington Road.
“Those things are now moving so that building permits can be issued,” Durant said.
She said about 10 to 15 years ago, Arlington was issuing 400 residential permits per year.
“It’s all controlled by the economy, cost of materials, and supply chain issues,” she said. “All of those things factor into how quickly a community grows.”
Work began this year on the 74-home Woodland Estates east of Chester Street, and some permits have been pulled for the 29-home Village at Donelson Farms south of Donelson Farms Parkway across from Donelson Elementary.
According to statistics released in August by the Memphis Area Association of Realtors, 39 new homes have been sold in Arlington in 2022 with a median sales price of more than $493,000, up 19.3% from last year.
Bartlett
After 58 housing starts last year, Bartlett Planning Director Kim Taylor expected around 60 this year, but through August, only 22 permits were pulled.
She said a number of residential projects that have been approved by the city, but the developers and builders are not moving on them yet. She sees a domino effect from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“That could be because interest rates keep jumping up, and materials are still expensive,” Taylor said. “So I don’t know if it happens to be that it’s just not affordable for them to go ahead and start with those or not.”
Projects under construction include the 62-home The Village at Brunswick project off New Brunswick Road by Regency Homebuilders, as well as Grant Homes’ 44-home Willow Ridge project south of Old Brownsville Road and a 20-unit addition to Walker Farms on the north side of Old Brownsville. Developer Gary Blume’s project will include 42 homes on 47 acres.
“And this week we just had a planned development (Joyce’s Gardens) approved by the Board of Mayor and Alderman,” Taylor said.
So far this year, 32 new homes have been sold in Bartlett, out of 838 total homes sales, with a median sales price of $485,000.
Taylor expects the number to start to increase next year as home construction begins at developer Grant & Co.’s Union Depot. Almost 650 homes are planned in the mixed-use development at the former Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home property on U.S. Route 70, north of Stage Road.
Lakeland
Last year there were 98 residential building permits pulled in Lakeland, and as of this week, there have been 95 permits pulled.
“Most resident feedback we receive at City Hall is that our citizens prefer housing increases to hold to a steady pace, not taking away from the natural resources of the city and not putting an unanticipated strain upon our school system,” said Lakeland City Manager Michael Walker, who thinks the total permits pulled could hit 125 for the year.
Big new home projects this year in Lakeland include the 103-lot Kensington Manor and the 367-lot Lakeland Meadows — both located off U.S. 70 — as well as the 156-home Oakwood Grove off Chambers Chapel Road.
“It appears as though all builders have been impacted in the past couple of years by supply chain issues and rising materials costs, but in Lakeland, we’re still seeing residential growth at a steady pace,” Walker said. “While we are outperforming the same period last year and there are more approved residential sites on the books, when those activities begin is really developer-driven.”
Year to date, 52 new homes have sold in Lakeland, with a median sales price of more than $571,000. That represents an increase of 13.1% over last year.