It’s in every state’s best interest to have quick building permit issuance for the benefit of its community, economic well-being, and to help combat the national housing crisis that continues to impact Americans.
The cost of housing is a significant barrier for many families and citizens hoping to own a home in the US. Unfortunately, it is slow, confusing, and inconvenient for many individuals to receive a building permit. Most building permits are submitted incomplete, leaving applicants and government staff frustrated and behind schedule.
Many states have explored ways to address this problem and make housing more affordable for all potential homeowners, and many have reached the conclusion that speeding up building permit issuance is an effective way to lower housing costs.
The Oregon Legislature passed House Bill 2306 to reduce how long it takes between a subdivision application approval and building permit issuance for subdivision lots. Other states have made efforts to do the same, like New York advocating for more affordable housing and Texas pushing to solve its affordability crisis by speeding up building permit issuance.
Since the housing crisis keeps putting limits on potential and future homeowners, it is inevitable that more states will continue to make efforts to accelerate building permit issuance and lower housing costs.
It has been discussed on a large scale that housing construction needs to speed up in order to help lower housing costs for Americans – between 1.5 and 5 million homes need to be built in order to help bridge the gap for homeowners. The Washington Post shared: “To close an accumulated shortfall estimated at 3.8 million units, the pace of housing construction would need to be about 50% higher over the next decade.”
If states cannot build more homes to house citizens, then there is a risk that residents will be forced out of their state because they cannot afford to live there anymore. This leads to further consequences for thousands of citizens and corporations to leave or avoid moving there in the future, negatively impacting a community’s economic well-being.
It is in the best interest of each state to lower housing costs, and investing in technology can be a way to accomplish this goal.
Faster building permit issuance can allow construction on new homes to happen quickly. Building more homes faster can add to the housing supply to help with demand. If there are more homes available for Americans, housing costs may go down.
Online building permitting forces applicants to submit complete applications and keeps all information in one place. Government staff can issue building permits 80% faster online than with paper-based systems. Communication and collaboration improve, the number of errors decreases, and accountability is encouraged when organized data exists online in an accessible format.
Individual local governments can help speed up how quickly its staff receive complete applications, and in turn, how fast staff can issue building permits with online community development software.
Reach out for a demo to learn more about how your department can help lower housing costs to benefit your citizens and community