Kallen Lower, 4, of Oak Creek, gets help from Robby Ellifson, a senior at Oak Creek High School, which has a student chapter of the Metropolitan Builders Association, during the recent Home Building & Remodeling Show. Credit: Rick Wood

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Home construction continued its steady comeback in 2013, with all but one of Wisconsin's most-populated areas posting their top performance since the recession.

Permits to build single-family homes and duplexes rose 25% in the state's biggest metro areas last year. Municipal officials issued 3,938 permits in metropolitan Milwaukee, Dane County, the Green Bay-Door County area, the Fox Valley and Racine-Kenosha market in 2013, according to data from MTD Marketing Services of Wisconsin Inc. That compares with 3,148 in 2012.

Only the Green Bay-Door County market had fewer permits than in 2012, slipping to 589 from 604, a 2.5% decline.

"2013 turned out to be the best year for new home construction over the last six years," said MTD's Dominic Collar.

Driving the growth in home starts were still-low interest rates, lower inventories of existing homes, land prices and an improving economy, industry professionals said. If those factors remain largely unchanged, 2014 should keep home building on a recovery path, they said.

"I'm optimistic about 2014," said builder David Belman of Belman Homes in Waukesha. "There is good momentum in the existing market. Prices have slowly climbed — not really high, but they've climbed. Inventory is down, average days on the market is down. Rates are expected to hold steady for a while. I think those are all positive indicators, and when there's not a lot of inventory, that's when people go to build."

Collar said MTD's research indicates "consumers are actively looking to build in the first quarter of 2014, in spite of the challenges a cold and snowy winter brings."

While home building is still 60% lower than during the peak year of 2004, the performance of 2013 kept new-construction business on an upward trend.

The metro Milwaukee area had more than 1,000 housing permits for the first time since 2008. Dane County topped 1,000 permits for the first time since 2007.

Collar said most of the homes are being constructed on a contract basis — for a specific buyer — instead of on speculation. But more spec homes could be built if the shrinkage of quality existing homes for sale continues.

"We had a closing today on one," Belman said.

If people sell their existing home quickly and can't find what they want in the smaller inventory of existing homes, they could be in the market for a spec house, Belman said.

"They don't want to wait to build or they don't have the time. They don't want to do the double move with the apartment," he said.

Seeking skill set

Builders said finding workers with home-building skills has been a challenge since the post-recession pickup in home building began.

"Especially in the carpentry part of it," Belman said. "So many of those carpenters left the industry during the recession, and you just don't pick up right away with that type of labor. You don't jump in and start framing houses. You have to have some skills and knowledge. And quite frankly, there's not a lot of young kids going into that field, either."