The housing market in Chilton County appears to have slowed during 2008, though the county hasn’t been affected as much as other local areas.

For the year, Clanton issued 18 family building permits, according to the University of Alabama’s Center for Real Estate. That was down considerably from 2007 when 51 building permits were issued.

In Jemison, the number of building permits actually increased from 24 to 25 from 2007 to 2008.

In 2008, Clanton and Jemison had 21 and 25 projected housing starts, respectively.

Rick Mims with the Chilton County Homebuilders Association said the numbers shown in Chilton County might not be representative of the whole county since there is no county inspections department.

“Only cities like Clanton, Jemison and Thorsby have an inspections department, and the permits do not show if people are buying manufactured homes,” Mims said. “But the numbers do show a general slowing trend.”

The news was worse in the Birmingham metropolitan area. The number of building permits in 2008 was about half of what it was in 2007. In the combined cities and county districts, there were 2,258 permits issued last year compared 4,420 permits in 2007.

ACRE teams with the Home Builders Association of Alabama to collect, analyze, store and disseminate the monthly report on the state’s home building industry.

Since 1999, ACRE has partnered with the Alabama Association of REALTORS and continues to produce monthly reports that provide useful information associated with existing home sales and housing affordability, said Grayson Glaze, executive director of ACRE.

The report is released monthly to coincide as closely as possible with the release of national residential building permit data.

– Brent Maze can be reached at brent.maze@clantonadvertiser.com.