Chris Carter, building inspector for the city, tells the Oxford Eagle that much of the increase was due to student-geared housing developments with cottages that are rented out per bedroom.
Carter said since the units are stand-alone homes, they are counted as single-family homes.
"We have two new developments that are not complete yet, but were issued their permits in 2012 — The Retreat and the Highlands," Carter said. "Both have mostly cottages in their developments which is a large part of the jump in the permits."
The value of the single-family-homes was approximately $25.8 million in 2012, which brought $136,909 in permit fees to the city. In 2011, permits totaled approximately $9.3 million, which brought in $42,623 in fees.
Condominiums and apartments also showed jumps with 94 permits issued for condos with a value of approximately $9.2 million and $52,024 in permit fees in 2012 compared to 41 permits issued in 2011 with a value of approximately $3.8 million with $21,633 in fees brought in.
Duplexes went from no permits pulled in 2011 to 39 in 2012 with a value of approximately $6.2 million and $31,402 in permit fees.
"We're had some big apartment complexes come in — Taylor Bend, Molly Barr Trail and the Hub, which is not complete yet," Carter said. "Some of the newer developments for students, like The Retreat, are building a few duplexes as well as the cottages. We haven't seen too many duplexes going up for a while."






