2013 building permit numbers for Idaho Falls down from 2012, but still healthy

These building permit numbers are posted on the city of Idaho Falls' Web page every month, and there's usually a few things that jump out.

In the case of the year-end numbers, 2013 was a down year only by way of comparison with 2012. This is an instance were a big project can skew things in a big way. Say the Watkins Distributing warehouse or the new Smith Chevrolet/Honda had been in Idaho Falls rather than unincorporated Bonneville County. The total for 2013 might have been higher than 2012.

Also interesting, Idaho Falls permits for single family dwellings in 2012 and 2013 -- 279 total -- were not that far below the previous four years' cumulative total, 311. It could be some time before we get back to the boom numbers of 2005-2007, but that's necessarily a bad thing.