Permits issued for housing construction rose 6 percent in August from a year earlier in the Chicago area, with single-family homes accounting for all of the increase, a monthly survey by Bell Federal Savings and Loan Association showed Tuesday.
Single-family permits jumped 58 percent to 2,429 units in the seven-county area from 1,534 units in the year-earlier period, the firm said, while permits issued for multifamily housing fell 39 percent to 1,072 units from 1,765 a year ago.
During the first eight months of 1986, permits issued for homes and apartments totaled 27,438, up 40 percent from the 19,564 in the same 1985 period.
The value of permits issued for all types of construction–residential, commercial, industrial and government–totaled $577.3 million in August, an increase of 37 percent from $420.6 million a year earlier. Total permit values fell 25 percent in Chicago, but rose 46 percent in the suburbs and 50 percent in unincorporated areas.
Permits issued in 1986 through August had a total value of $3.54 billion, up from $2.97 billion a year earlier.
