Surge in New Residential Construction Permits in Cities

Some metropolitan communities may be attracting more residents from the suburbs and rural areas.  That’s according to a new report from the Environmental Protection Agency’s John Thomas.“The real central question here is when you look at the whole central metropolitan area, is there a change in the share of that new residential construction happening downtown relative to the suburban counties, and that’s what I was finding.  And again, it’s not universal is I think one of the other interesting take home messages," says Thomas.The trend is most pronounced among the coastal cities as well as in Chicago and Atlanta.  But metro areas like Louisville and other Midwestern cities are not seeing their share of downtown residential developments jump dramatically.  Thomas says the reasons could be anything from lack of development money to the need to rezone a property.