A raft of planned new apartment buildings helped boost homebuilding in the Twin Cities metro this month. During August, 470 permits to build 739 units were issued during the four-week period ending August 27, according to data gathered by the Keystone Report for the Builders Association of the Twin Cities (BATC). That was a 13.8 percent increase in permits and a 38.9 percent increase in the number of new units.

Despite two consecutive months of stronger permit activity, including a recent spike in single-family construction, home building in the region has been flat compared with last year. Here's a response to the situation from BATC president, Chris Contreras: "While we're happy to see another month of improvement in the market, we were hoping for a much stronger year in 2015."

These communities issued the most permits last month:

  1. Minnetonka: 107
  2. Carver: 69
  3. Ramsey: 52
  4. Plymouth: 38
  5. Woodbury: 37