The total value of Spokane-area building permits fell sharply last year compared with a year earlier, but some sources monitoring the construction industry say that perhaps the bar was artificially high in 2013.

Building permit values for last year in Spokane County and the cities of Spokane and Spokane Valley totaled $739.2 million, down 28 percent from a record permit valuation of $1.03 billion in 2013, records from the three jurisdictions show.

Permit values for 2014 were still the third highest on record since the prerecession peak of $939.2 million in 2006.

Of the three jurisdictions, the steepest decline in total permit valuations was in the city of Spokane, where 2014 permit values, at $312.1 million, were 42 percent lower than in 2013. Spokane Valley’s 2014 permit values were 28 percent lower than in 2013, while the values in unincorporated Spokane County in 2014 fell less than 1 percent from the previous year.

Kris Becker, the city of Spokane’s development services manager, says one reason for lower total permit values last year is that a few exceptionally big projects were permitted the prior year.

“Valuations are down in the city in 2014 from 2013 because we had some major projects come through in 2013,” Becker says.

In 2014, only one project was permitted in Spokane with a value exceeding $15 million, she says. That was the Rockwood Retirement Communities’ $40.1 million Summit tower project on the South Hill.

The next projects with the highest in valuations in the city of Spokane last year were the $14.6 million Cottages at River Run apartments, in the West Hills neighborhood; and the $14.5 million Hutton Elementary School addition and modernization project, at 908 E. 24th.

In 2013, by comparison, the three projects with the highest value were the $135 million Davenport Grand Hotel downtown, the $45.4 million Gonzaga University COG Center in the Hamilton Street corridor, and the $37 million Convention Center addition and expansion downtown.

Kate McCaslin, president and CEO of the Inland Pacific Chapter of Associated Builders & Contractors Inc., says she isn’t hearing of any slowdown from members.

“It would seem contrary to what all my indicators are telling me,” McCaslin says of the lower 2014 permit numbers.

She says she also suspects the lower permit numbers in 2014 were skewed partly by 2013’s big projects.

“We hear contractors are very busy,” McCaslin says.

That’s reflected in the strong rate of ABC membership renewals and the number of contractors reporting dues in a higher category, she says.

ABC member dues are set on a graduated scale based on revenue, she says.

“Members pay dues according to volume,” McCaslin says. “I can tell how the economy is doing by how many contractors go down or up in volume.”

Factoring out the Davenport Grand Hotel, the Convention Center project, and the Gonzaga project, she says, “It sounds more like it’s flat.”

Fewer building permits were issued for new home construction in the Spokane area in 2014 than in 2013, despite the rising trend in overall home sales over the last few years.

In 2014, 828 homes with a total construction value of $204.1 million were permitted in Spokane County and the cities of Spokane and Spokane Valley, compared with 944 homes with a total value of $288.5 million a year earlier.

Joel White, executive officer at the Spokane Home Builders Association, says it’s disappointing to see home starts slow down following a two-year post-recession increase.

“The real estate market overall did fairly well,” White says, noting a 6 percent increase in the number of existing homes sold through the Spokane Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service in 2014, compared with 2013.

“I think it’s a cost-competitive thing,” he says of existing-home sales.

The average price of a new home sold through the MLS was $274,200 in 2014, while the sales price of an existing home was $186,300.

White says that most of the year-over-year decline in new-home starts occurred in the second half of the year.

“I think there were some issues with the election and the uncertainty in the economy,” he says. “I think people were sitting back and waiting.”

Looking ahead, Becker says potential projects valued in total at more than $100 million are in plan review or predevelopment in the city of Spokane.

The projects include the $15 million Spokane Teaching Health Center’s University District Health Clinic, for which Washington State University Spokane plans to break ground this spring.

Other projects that could launch this year include a $15 million-plus office complex envisioned near the south bank of the Spokane River, on the eastern edge of the University District, and a $5.2 million ambulatory health care center planned at 8202 N. Division, on the North Side.