2011 was a yo-yo year for construction in Kootenai County, making 2012 hard to predict.

"The year 2011 was down considerably in the residential section, but the commercial came up substantially," said Russell Cornell, building official at the City of Post Falls. "It is difficult to predict what will happen with the construction industry in the near future, especially in light of inaction in Congress as it pertains to the national debt load and tax laws."

Most area agencies reported the same building trend for 2011 - less single-family homes built from the previous year and more commercial activity.

Coeur d'Alene had 116 permits for new single-family homes taken out - the lowest number in recent memory and compared to 135 and 259 the previous two years of the recession.

In Post Falls, single-family permits slipped to 87, also the lowest in several years and compared to 170 and 245 the previous two years.

Hayden's numbers dropped to 31 from 35 and 40.

Rathdrum's single-family numbers declined from 25 in 2010 to 20 in 2011.

"Our best guess for prospects is that things will continue on about the same for the next year with slow growth," said Brett Boyer, Rathdrum city administrator.

Some economists predict a 7 percent growth this year - Cornell foresees a similar trend - but that only means a handful more new single-family homes, he said.

"Future growth will still be slow until such time as the inventory of existing foreclosed homes on the market sells off," Cornell said.

In the county, a total of 1,254 of all types of permits were taken out in 2011. That's the lowest number since 2000.

New commercial construction numbers on individual jobs are up.

Coeur d'Alene had 23 such permits in 2011, compared to 15 and 17 in the previous two years. Post Falls had 21, compared to nine and 33. Rathdrum had two each of the past two years.

Hayden's commercial numbers dropped to six in 2011, compared to eight in 2010 and 12 in 2009.

Dean Haagenson of Contractors Northwest, which is building the Kootenai Technical Education Campus, a professional-technical school in Rathdrum, said the commercial numbers can be a bit deceiving, however.

While the number of individual commercial site jobs are up, valuations are still lower than several previous years.

Commercial valuation in Coeur d'Alene was $13.8 million in 2011 and $11.9 million in Post Falls, a far cry from the boom years in 2004 and 2005.

"The commercial market is still not good," Haagenson said. "I expect 2012 will be more of the same. There's just too much vacant space. When you drive up and down the street, what you see is 'for rent,' 'for lease,' and 'for sale.'"

"There's just too much vacant space that has to be absorbed."

On the plus side, a steady stream of residential mechanical permits.

"More than the normal amounts as people stayed in their existing houses and upgraded heating/cooling systems, taking advantage of the energy rebates and tax credits," Cornell said.

Cornell said construction costs have risen due to a consolidation of contractors and cutback in production of building materials, which may limit growth this year.

Construction on several projects are either under way or slated to start this year, including Groundforce Worldwide, the second phase of the Silver Creek Apartments near the Flying J, the Blue Dog RV expansion and the Raycap manufacturing addition.