The Wright County Recorder’s Office had its busiest year in the better part of the last two decades in 2021. It recorded 64 plats that represent 1,978 new parcels and lots – the most in both categories since 2006 and more than three times the number of new parcels than in 2020. The 64 plats represented the ninth straight year of increases in the number of plats recorded.
Wright County Recorder Tanya West said that her office was extremely busy during the year because most of the plats recorded were housing developments that are going to add thousands of county residents to an already-growing population.
“What the numbers tell us is that there is massive development going on with multiple lots for single-family homes,” West said. “Not only has there been an increase in plats, but there are large developments that are being platted and parcels being created.”
For those unfamiliar with the platting process, it is long and includes several factors. They start with the Surveyor’s Office and then goes before a city planning board or, in the case of townships, the county Planning Commission. There is also involvement from the county attorney’s office for township plats. If the property abuts a highway, the county Highway Department becomes involved. All of this must take place before it gets an official recording from the Recorder’s Office.
The year-by-year numbers show the stark contrast in the cycle of the number of new developments in the county (see below). When the mortgage bubble burst in 2007, the number of new single-family home developments dried up quickly, as the number of new plats dropped for seven years – bottoming out in 2012. Since then, the numbers have been on the rise, but it took a couple of factors to see a significant increase of new housing development in Wright County and throughout the country.
“I think we’re just starting to come back from the foreclosure crisis,” West said. “It bottomed out a decade ago and it has been a long climb to recover from that. The economy drives this as well. Interest rates are historically low and everybody is taking advantage of that – whether they’re refinancing or building.”
The explosive growth in the number of new plats is sticking with projections that Wright County is and will remain a destination spot for families that work in the metropolitan area to find a safe community in which to live. It has been a trend for more than 30 years and shows no sign of slowing down.
“Wright County is the fastest growing county in the state and I think these plat numbers reflect that,” West said. “There are predictions out there for the next 10 or 20 years that we’re going to be the size of a metro county. With numbers like we saw last year, that looks more and more possible.”
YEAR – PLATS/NEW PARCELS
2005 – 109/3,106
2006 – 90/1,510
2007 – 59/844
2008 – 34/149
2009 – 19/68
2010 – 17/51
2011 – 14/55
2012 – 4/55
2013 – 19/117
2014 – 23/404
2015 – 33/339
2016 – 34/572
2017 – 40/836
2018 – 43/797
2019 – 50/821
2020 – 53/643
2021 – 64/1,978