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Gilbert not immune from slowdown
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Neighboring Gilbert still has about 15 years until buildout, but the once-booming town is also seeing a dramatic decrease in home construction.
In February, there were 140 homes completed in Gilbert, a town that at one point was issuing as many as 500 home permits a month. The number is declining drastically. In January only two home permits were accepted for new construction, and permits were issued for only 41 new homes in February.
Town spokesman Greg Svelund said Gilbert needs an upswing in homebuilding or the town's current budget woes could worsen for the town that has long held onto the title of fastest-growing municipality of 100,000 or more.
"If that trend continues, it indicates the population growth has leveled off," Svelund said. "It indicates there's a drastic reduction in new development money coming in to pay for the entire (town's) programs. It impacts police and keeping our hiring standard of 1.1 (police officers per 1,000 residents). With two months of data, it's probably too soon to start getting too sensitive."
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