By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Alabaster’s housing market is continuing to grow in comparison to the past several years, according to data recently released by the Alabaster Fire Department’s Planning and Safety Division.

The AFD recently issued its building permit reports through the end of April, which showed continued growth in the city’s number of new homes over last year’s numbers.

In April, the department issued nine new home building permits for homes valued at a total of more than $2 million.

With the addition of the nine new homes in April, Alabaster had issued 30 new home building permits through the first four months of 2016 for homes valued at a total of $7.3 million. The 30 permits through the end of April matches the city’s year-end total for 2011.

By comparison, the city had issued 23 new home building permits for homes valued at a total of about $6 million during the same time period last year.

While the city has issued fewer residential addition and remodel permits compared with last year, the value of those renovation projects has increased significantly this year.

Through April, the AFD had issued 68 residential addition and remodel permits for projects valued at a total of nearly $1.5 million, which was more than double last year’s total project value.

At the end of April 2015, the city had issued 82 residential addition or remodel permits for projects valued at a total of $631,301.

Alabaster’s commercial growth continued to lag behind last year’s numbers through the end of April.

Through the first four months of this year, the city had issued four new commercial building permits for projects valued at a total of about $4.3 million, compared to eight new commercial building permits last year for projects valued at a total of more than $12.6 million.

The AFD had issued 21 commercial addition or remodel permits for projects valued at a total of $545,207 at the end of April, compared to 33 commercial addition or remodel permits for projects valued at a total of about $1.8 million through April of last year.