County sees single-family building permits soar in May

DESOTO COUNTY — Single-family building permits surged in May, driving up year-to-date activity and leaving DeSoto officials optimistic for a long-sought housing-industry turn-around.

Planning director Ted Garrod tells The Commercial Appeal 85 single-family permits were recorded, with 28 in the unincorporated county. He says the latter is a 68 percent increase over last May’s figure of just 19 in areas outside the cities.

For 2012, Garrod said the year-to-date total of 288 single-family permits for all the county represents about one per working day.