Building values in December for the village of Ruidoso hit more than $2 million, rebounding nicely from a sluggish November.
Although fewer permits were issued, just 65 compared to 106 the previous month, the value of the construction more than doubled from $996,347 to $2,069.394. Fees collected also increased from $15,987 to $17,839.
Permits for six single-family dwellings helped pump up the value, accounting for $1,567,478. Two were more than $350,000 each, Building Official Shawn Fort reported.
Six different contractors are handling the home-building projects. They are LLB Construction, Dig It Construction, Ratliff Custom Homes, Sun Valley Home, Roper Construction and Tower Construction.
The department issued 26 building permits, 25 electrical permits, 13 plumbing permits and one permit for site development.
For the year, construction values based on 1,361 issued permits topped $19.1 million, accounting for $239,378 in fees.
“That’s a slight downtick from $22 million and $270,000 in fees in 2010,” Fort said. “We had a pretty good December, not as many permits, but more housing. We’ve already seen several new starts in January too, but I hear (from contractors) it’s still pretty tough going out there.”
Overall however, Fort said, “We’re pretty lucky. We don’t take the hit as hard as a lot of other places. We’re still very active for our size of town.”
In a related matter, Village Clerk Irma Devine reported that 15 new business registrations were processed in December and no registrations were terminated.
In the 2010 calendar year, business turnover was evident with 440 new business registrations recorded and 352 terminated for a total of 1,469 businesses in Ruidoso.
As in past years, the number of new versus the number terminated seemed to maintain relative balance.
However, in 2011 the number of new businesses registered dropped dramatically to about 249 with about 409 terminated.
The numbers are approximate, because businesses that are two months delinquent are terminated and then turned over to code enforcement for collection, if they still are in business, Deputy Village Clerk Bertha Randolph said. If the owners of the delinquent businesses pay, they are once again added to the list.
