The building boom in Lathrop continues.

In the first three months of 2021, there were 227 new home sales in the City of Lathrop and 258 residential construction permits issued for new dwelling units – a continuation of the ongoing growth that has helped propel the South County into one of the fastest-growing areas in the State of California.

But the year isn’t off to as hot of a start as last year was.

As part of a development update provided to the Lathrop City Council earlier this week, city staff put together a presentation that outlined the current first quarter growth that the city is experiencing and compared it to previous years – showed a marked decline in the number of building permits issued in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the previous two years.

According to a chart included in the presentation, Lathrop issued 258 new permits in 2021 – 139 single family homes and 119 multi-family units – compared to 649 new single family home permits last year and 177 multi-family permits during the same quarter.

The 2020 numbers before the pandemic struck were the city’s best in the last eight years – the previous year, in 2019, the city issued 381 single family home permits during the first quarter and 27 multi-family home permits.

And the multi-family units that are coming online later this year will bring luxury apartment living to Lathrop.

The pre-leasing for the Towne Centre Apartments – located just down the street from Lathrop City Hall – is expected to begin next month for a $1,925 one bedroom and one bathroom apartment and $2,495 for a two bedroom and two bathroom apartment.

Part of the reason for the growth explosion can be attributed to Lathrop’s relatively low unemployment rate when compared to the rest of San Joaquin and the State of California as a whole.

While the city enjoyed a relatively low 4.3 percent unemployment rate in 2019, that number ballooned up to 9.6 percent in 2020 thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic before falling down to 8.5 percent by January of this year. The city’s current unemployment rate of 8.1 percent is below both the State of California’s unemployment rate of 8.4 percent and more than a point below San Joaquin County’s unemployment rate of 9.5 percent.

And since economic uncertainly was widespread over the course of the last year, the City of Lathrop stepped in and proved $112,918.71 to date in general assistance grants to 44 homes in the community that had fallen on hard times.

The routine economic updates help provide the council with a snapshot of the current economic climate in the city and provide information for residents that may be of use – including a list of places in the community that are currently hiring and links to secure labor force information within San Joaquin County.

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.