A record number of new housing permits were issued in Utah during the first nine months of 2005, indicating no slowdown in a residential construction boom stretching from Ogden to St. George.

Across the state, 21,347 residential permits were issued from Jan. 1 through Sept. 30, a 13.1 percent increase compared to 18,876 permits during the same nine-month period in 2004, according to the University of Utah's Bureau of Economic and Business Research.

Residential permits include single-family homes, apartments, condominiums, mobile homes and cabins.

St. George topped the list of Utah cities issuing the most residential permits at 1,551. Lehi was second at 1,035.

Clint Carter, a Lehi building official, said the city's lower cost of land is one of the reasons driving many people to build there, particularly at Traverse Mountain, east of I-15 near the Cabela's store.

"We're issuing about 150 building permits a month," Carter said. "For the last five years we have not seen any kind of a drop-off whatsoever. We've got a lot of farm ground that still could be developed. When we do build out, we are going to be one of the largest cities in the state."

Rounding out the top five Utah cities issuing the most residential building permits were Herriman with 788, West Jordan with 786 and South Jordan with 740.

The total residential construction valuation in Utah for the first nine months of 2005 reached $3.5 billion, a nearly 30 percent increase from $2.7 billion during the same period of 2004, according to the U. report.

Residential valuations include the cost of materials and labor but not the cost of land or architectural fees.

"This will be our third record year," said Francis Lilly, a research analyst at the bureau. "Already, we've broken records for the number of single-family units, residential valuation and total construction valuation."

Residential valuation in 2004 totaled $3.5 billion. James Wood, director of the U. bureau, said residential valuation will likely break $4 billion this year, an all-time record for the state even after adjusting for inflation.

Taz Biesinger, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Utah, said people considering building a home should not encounter too many delays in finding contractors or obtaining building materials.

"Just as the market has grown, so has the number of builders, buyers and subcontractors," Biesinger said. "The industry has geared up to handle that kind of volume."

This past summer, Biesinger said a rapid rise in lumber prices and a shortage of cement made it difficult for many home builders.

"For quite a while people weren't able to even get concrete to do their footings and foundations," Biesinger said. "It is still not as available, I think, as we probably would like it, but that concrete issue for the most part has been taken care of."

The report on Utah's continued boom in housing construction came during a week that brought mixed messages about national housing sales. A Tuesday report from the U.S. Commerce Department said sales of new single-family homes nationwide rose by 13 percent in October. But a Monday report from the National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes and condominiums nationwide fell by 2.7 percent in October.

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