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With homebuilding on the rise across the state, the number of permits issued in Southeast Michigan are heavily concentrated in outer-ring suburbs.
Meanwhile, closer to the urban center of the region, the city of Detroit is leading in the development of multi-family housing.
In general, Michigan has seen an uptick in home built, with some parts of Southeast Michigan and metro Detroit also joining in that trend. But recent data from the Home Builders Association of Southeastern Michigan and shared with Crain’s shows that the vast majority of permits for single-family homes are concentrated in the region’s outlying, exurban areas.
Only three municipalities in the region issued more than 200 permits last year, per the data. Macomb Township in Macomb County had by far the most, with 417 permits issued for new homes.
Other communities with more than 100 homebuilding permits include Troy; Pittsfield and Scio townships, both near Ann Arbor; Canton Township in Wayne County; Chesterfield Township in Macomb County, and Lyon Township in Oakland County.
“There is a better market and more demand in the suburbs at the moment,” Darian Neubecker, president of Bloomfield Hills-based Robertson Brothers Homes, wrote in an email to Crain’s. “There also is easier access to land to entitle developments … as well.”
Crain’s has previously documented the struggles of the housing market in Detroit’s inner-ring suburbs, where homes tend to be older and often in need of repairs.
Macomb Township is one of the state’s fastest-growing communities and has been for years, according to township Planning Director Josh Bocks. In the years leading up to the Great Recession in the 2000s, approved permits were around 800 annually, Bocks added.
“We slowed down a little bit after that, but we’re cruising right along,” Bocks said of the current wave of homebuilding, noting that much of the township remains undeveloped and several more subdivision site plans are in the pipeline.
For multi-family construction, the Home Builders Association of Southeastern Michigan data shows that 743 permits for apartments and condos were issued in the city of Detroit last year, significantly more than any other municipality in the area.
Commerce Township, Chesterfield Township and West Bloomfield Township followed Detroit in terms of multi-family permits, with between 200 and 300 multi-family permits.
In addition to the multi-family permits, the city of Detroit issued 76 single-family home permits. New-build, single-family homes have been a rarity in the city for years.
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