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Pasco still new home hot spot
By JAMES THORNER © St. Petersburg Times, published January 9, 2001 When it comes to churning out new houses, Pasco remains near the top of the heap in the Tampa Bay area. Pasco issued 2,931 building permits for single-family homes in the year 2000, the second highest number since the late 1970s and early 1980s, when coastal communities such as New Port Richey blossomed with rooftops. The rate of growth showed a slight drop from 1999, when Pasco issued 3,032 permits for single-family homes. Hillsborough County, with an estimated permit total of more than 10,000, once again ranked as the regional housing leader in 2000. "In absolute terms, Pasco would be a distant second to Hillsborough and just barely ahead of Pinellas and far ahead of Hernando," said housing analyst Marvin Rose, who publishes Rose Residential Reports for the building industry. Most of the growth is sprouting in the soil of south-central Pasco, where new subdivisions have lured buyers searching for better housing values and lower property taxes. Leading the pack was Meadow Pointe in Wesley Chapel. More than 375 families closed on homes in Meadow Pointe in 2000. Meadow Pointe's developer, Devco Development Co., has announced a 4,000-home expansion of the neighborhood to start this year. Lexington Oaks, Valencia Gardens, The Enclave, Sable Ridge, Lake Jovita and Stagecoach were among the other strong selling Pasco neighborhoods east of U.S. 41. In southwest Pasco, where development has streamed north from Pinellas, Heritage Springs, Trinity and River Ridge were the engines of growth, with more than 100 closings apiece. "There has been a trend over the last 7 or 8 years from west Pasco to east Pasco, primarily because of Meadow Pointe and other communities," Rose said. Pasco planners expect the miles of farms between Land O'Lakes and New Port Richey to be the next land of opportunity. Inspired by next month's opening of the three-county Suncoast Parkway, developers have proposed about 7,000 houses and apartments for the 5-mile stretch between the parkway and U.S. 41. "It's a gap that's about to be filled," Rose said. Rose cautioned that most of the growth will not happen at once. "Some of these are 10-year projects and some are 2 or 3 years away from pulling permits," he said. What's more, some developers fear Pasco is reaching a saturation point, that a surplus of housing will suppress new home prices and dampen profits in the building industry, Rose said. Officials at Pasco's central permitting office, which issues both residential and non-residential permits, have noticed heavy permit activity during what used to be slow periods. "In November and December we usually slack off," said Claudia Jager, who keeps track of permit totals for Pasco. "But this year we didn't." Pasco's all-time record for issuing residential housing permits was 5,175 in 1979.
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