Charles Abbott and Associates issued 1,167 building permits in 2007, with only two working days left in the year -- a 32 percent drop from the 1,817 issued in 2006.

Permits issued for construction of single-family residences dropped 42 percent, from 717 permits to 416, a sign of the slump in the construction industry.

Building activity was about as busy as normal in the first half of the year, until it slacked off in the second half as the foreclosure crisis caused by the escalation of sub-prime mortgages led to a drop in the real estate market nationwide.

Total valuations of new construction sank 22 percent from $101.8 million in 2006 to $79.5 million for almost all of 2007.

During December only six permits were taken out to build single-family residences, the first time since February 1999 Charles Abbott and Associates had single-digit figures for the issuance of building permits for new single-family homes.

They reported only 29 total building permits issued for the month.

December is normally a slow month before the holidays, though last year the building department reported 42 single-family residential permits issued and 114 total permits.

"We're down quite a bit," Pahrump Senior Building Inspector Brent Steed said. He said builders constructing projects for Concordia Homes of Southern Nevada, Beazer Homes and other major builders had laid off workers.

Beazer removed its sales trailer from Highway 160 and Manse Road. Steed said Mountain Falls is operating with a bare bones staff.

William Lyon Homes, the major builder in Mountain Falls, pulled 11 building permits for new homes in September but none at all during October.

"Those have all laid everybody off. I think Mountain Falls has eight more homes they've sold and that's it. They'll probably be in here after the first of the year to draw those permits," Steed said. "Most of the other contractors, they haven't got anything going on that isn't commercial."

December 2007 figures reflect $4.5 million in the valuation of new construction activity, a sizeable figure attributed to new commercial developments.

Total building permits issued per month had been in the triple digits until August, when the housing downturn began to affect Pahrump. Total permits issued dropped from a high of 141 last March to 103 in July, 96 in August, 69 in September, 73 in October, 55 in November and 29 for almost all of December.

R&O Construction Co. of Las Vegas, the general contractor for the Home Depot, paid $24,588 in building permit fees in October to construct the new store at Highway 160 and Basin Avenue, part of $9.5 million in new valuations on construction that month.

Commercial building activity picked up in 2007, with 94 permits issued, including 10 in September and 13 in April. Danoski Clutts Construction Co. began work on the expansion of the Pahrump Valley Junction Shopping Center in April. Classic Homes and Edward Homes built a pair of shopping centers on Highway 160 near Rainbow Avenue.

Steed said tenant improvements will have to be completed for the individual stores next to Albertson's Supermarket before they're ready for occupancy. Those should be completed after the first of the year, he said.

"We usually do 60 to 70 inspections a day. We're doing about 20 now. A lot of them are final (inspections) so January and February is going to be slow," Steed said.

Charles Abbott and Associates formerly had nine inspectors in Pahrump. They're down to six, he said.

While the company performed 972 inspections in July, those numbers dropped in half by October.

Charles Abbott and Associates collected $1.36 million in building permit fees in 2006. For the first 11 months of 2007, the company collected $996,800.

Steed said he is expecting the Holiday Inn Express and Buffalo Wild Wings Restaurant to be constructed next year. Plans haven't been turned in yet for that project on Highway 160 south of Wells Fargo Bank and Wilson Road.

Mark Fiorentino, senior vice-president of government affairs for Focus Property Group, said publicly he expects the company to begin infrastructure work on their Gateway Project in summer 2008. That would include grading roads and installing water and sewer to the area.

Focus outlined a maximum build out of 5,800 homes in their development agreement approved in September 2006. At that time, company president John Ritter said he didn't expect homes would be constructed there until 2009.

Steve Osborne, a planner with the Nye County Planning Department, said a few developers who received zone changes in 2007 have followed up by submitting site development plans.

They include HSLV Development, which won approval for the Sierra Sky Ranch subdivision with 242 townhouses on 17 acres just north of Rosemary Clarke Middle School in March and Sunstate Components, which plans to build a truss factory on 13 acres on South Dandelion Street.

Steed said there are reports of more than 900 homes for sale in the Pahrump valley with the multiple listing service that's led to a backlog.