New home construction at King’s Way and Spanish Trail Monday, Oct. 5, 2015.(Michael Spooneybarger/ Studer Community Institute)

While new home construction in Escambia County has been on a steady decline over the past few years, the City of Pensacola is bucking that trend in a big way.

Bill Weeks, who heads the City of Pensacola's Inspection Services Department, said new home construction in the city in 2015 soared 150 percent over 2014, and more than 200 percent when compared to the last five years.

Construction of those homes is good news not only for the people who will live in them, but also for the jobs in the construction industry and associated trades it will support. Such positive economic activity is important to the quality of life in the Pensacola metro area.

Through Sept. 30, the end of the city's fiscal year, 101 new homes were permitted, a robust number considering the relatively small number of vacant residential properties available in the city limits.

"Builders are finding these pockets of land in the city, getting them rezoned so they can be subdivided and putting up new houses," Weeks said. "To me it seems like Pensacola is becoming a real popular place to live, especially East Hill, which has become a real hot spot, accounting for a third of all new homes built in 2015.”

By contrast, the number of new homes built in Escambia County has been on a steady decline since 2013, said Dina L. Wilson with Escambia County Building Inspections.

Wilson's building inspections records show 767 new single-family home construction permits were issued in 2013; 649 in 2014; and 585 in 2015.

While the county has seen a slowdown, there's still abundant new home construction activity in select parts of the county.

Nature Trail in the Beulah community is a subdivision that’s been on a steady roll for the past four years. Directly across U.S. 90 from the rapidly growing Navy Federal Credit Union campus, Nature Trail led all county subdivisions in 2015 in new homes built.

New home sales in Nature Trail topped $21 million in 2015, and accounted for 20 percent of all new homes built during the past 12 months, according to data gathered by Metro Market Trends, a Pensacola-based real estate research firm.

New home construction in the city is being driven largely by retirees, baby boomers downsizing to small properties and young professionals wanting to live closer to downtown Pensacola and its vibrant nightlife, said Lydia Davis with ReMax in Pensacola.

New home construction at King’s Way and Spanish Trail Monday, Oct. 5, 2015.(Michael Spooneybarger/ Studer Community Institute)

Davis currently is brokering 11 newly developed patio-home sites off Spanish Trail and King's Way, north of Summit Boulevard.

"We're seeing a lot of people who are selling their larger homes, people who don't want the upkeep of big yards, and are looking for homes with less upkeep and smaller lot lines," Davis said.

Davis said builders, as well as homebuyers, clearly are trending toward smaller patio homes, townhomes and condominiums.

Another trend Davis sees gaining steam, especially in the East Hill neighborhood, is individual builders buying older homes, razing them, and building new, upscale, custom homes.

"I'm seeing more and more new home building in neighborhoods that haven't had any new construction for quite a while," Davis said.

One area of the city that appears ripe for new home construction, said Weeks, is the westside, between Main and Government streets.

"I think one of the things you're going to see eventually is a lot of residential development along the Main Street corridor," Weeks said. "As far as new home construction, we've seen a few larger homes go in south of Main, but beyond that there really hasn't been any new construction.

"I think when Mr. (Quint) Studer does something with the old ECUA property, you're going to see some new home construction take off," Weeks added.