Butler County experiencing building boom
Don’t look now, but Butler County is undergoing a major building boom, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to end anytime soon.
More building permits have been issued in Butler County so far in 2024 than in any other county in Pennsylvania, with 10.93 new building permits per every 1,000 homes, according to a study recently released by Smart Asset.
Coming in second was Cumberland County, with 9.66 new building permits per every 1,000 homes.
Butler County also rated first in the state in terms of incoming investment, with an index of 10.48, ranking just ahead of Philadelphia County.
Mark Gordon, chief of economic development and planning for the county, said the southwest portion of the county is the No. 1 beneficiary of new development, which is no surprise to anyone who lives in that area. This includes Cranberry, Jackson, Adams, Penn, Middlesex, and Lancaster townships and Mars.
Gordon said there have been 805 building permits issued in the Cranberry area so far this year, and the building boom is spreading beyond the Cranberry tier.
“We’re seeing expansion into Middlesex Township, Butler Township, Penn Township, and Buffalo Township,” Gordon said. “When you drive along Route 8, where Route 8 and (Route) 228 intersect, you see a lot of that development up in and around Middlesex. All the single-family homes, all the townhomes, all of that.”
The building boom goes hand in hand with the county’s population boom. Last year, Butler County was one of only two counties in Western Pennsylvania to record a population increase, growing by 2.39% from 2022 to 2023.
Gordon said Butler County is turning into a “retirement community” of sorts.
“We have a lot of people that maybe have been in a single-family home that was your typical home ... and now they’re reaching that age where they're retired, or semi-retired, and they’re downsizing,” Gordon said. “There is a very attractive market for patio homes and condominiums.
Gordon said the bulk of building permits issued so far this year are residential, and the bulk of those consist of single-family dwellings. These include anything from sprawling and manicured residential developments to townhomes to trailer parks. So far, 484 residential building permits have been issued in Butler County this year.
“Single-family dwellings would include things like modular homes and townhomes,” Gordon said. “I would say, from 422 south is where the majority of the development has occurred.”
While Gordon doesn’t see Butler County’s building boom abating anytime soon, the growth may take a while to spread to the more rural communities in the northern part of the county. After all, developers can’t build where there’s no infrastructure.
“I think the growth is actually going to follow the availability of land for new construction,” Gordon said. “I think there are some areas in the far north that are pretty limited. Young people want to go into an area where there is municipal water. They want to go into an area where there is municipal sewage. And that isn’t necessarily available everywhere.”
