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1.5.3 Total Number of Residential Building Permits & Number per 1,000 Residents
Why is this important?
Residential building permits are an important subset of total construction permits, and hence construction activity, in a regional economy. An increase in these permits reflects an increase in population growth in Walla Walla County or a desire by current residents to change their dwelling, usually the most important financial asset of a family or household.
As in the case of general construction, changes in these permits signal the direction of near-term activity to the construction trades and real estate industry. The direction of building permit trends also informs local government about future sales tax revenues, since residential building leads to taxable sales. Changes in the numbers of residential building permits signal the direction of near-term activity to the construction trades and real estate industry.
This indicator measures the total number of residential units permitted and the rate per 1,000 residents of Walla Walla County. Washington State and the U.S. are offered as benchmarks. Additional information, including the total number of residential units permitted in Washington and in the U.S., can be found in the "Download Data" section.
Where are we?
During 2024 in Walla Walla County, the number of residential units permitted for:
- Single Family Units was 143, increasing from 137 in 2000.
- Multi-Family Units (2+) was 62, decreasing from 124 in 2000.
- Total Units was 205, decreasing from 261 in 2000.
By comparison during 2024, the number of residential unit permits granted per 1,000 residents in:
- Walla Walla County was 3.2, decreasing from 4.6 in 2000.
- Washington State was 4.7, decreasing from 7.3 in 2000.
- The U.S. was 4.3, decreasing from 5.2 in 2000.
Data Sources
U.S. Census Bureau: Building Permits Survey
- Under the “Building Permits” header, select “Permits by County or Place”.
- Next, select “County”. This opens a new webpage.
- Scroll to the bottom of the webpage and look for files “co<four-digit year>a.txt". Choose the file with the desired year.
- In the .txt file, counties in Washington State are designated with 53, which is located immediately after the year.
- To properly view the .txt file, copy and paste the contents into Excel. Step by step directions are available here.
- County data: Filter out and find the county you need. Add up the values for 2-5 units to find the multi-family residential building permits.
- Washington State total: After copying and pasting every county's residential building permit data, take the sum of the needed columns (1-5 units).
- United States total: Under the “Building Permits” header, select “ASCII Files by State, MSA, County or Place," and select "State." Repeat similar steps until you have formatted the data correctly in Excel, use the same columns as above, and look for the United States.
Population Data:
For County and State: Washington State Office of Financial Management - April 1 Official Population Estimates
- Select desired format under "April 1 population of cities, towns, and counties used for the allocation of selected state revenues"
For U.S.: U.S. Census Bureau - QuickFacts
- Under "People" and Population", see "Population Estimates"
