THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, February 16, 1997             TAG: 9702160048
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 
SOURCE: BY CATHERINE KOZAK, STAFF WRITER 
                                            LENGTH:   56 lines

MODERATE GROWTH PREDICTED HEALTHY LAND SALES ARE SEEN AS A PRECURSOR TO MORE BUILDING ACTIVITY.

The Outer Banks building boom may not be busted, but recently released economic indicators show some definite braking action.

Building-permit values in Dare County slid 8 percent in 1996 from 1995 totals, according to a report in the February Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce newsletter.

In Currituck County, new residential construction values in the same period dipped 5 percent.

Land transfer receipts, however, reflect a market that's still healthy for undeveloped property in Currituck. Parcels changed hands 22 percent more in 1996 than they did the year before.

And Dare County collected revenue on 16 percent more land transfers in 1996, according to the chamber report, which was calculated from figures gathered from the counties and the state.

``It definitely went down, but I don't think that's significant,'' Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce President John Bone said Friday. ``It's not a trend by any stretch of the imagination. I think in January it will go up. A lot of that has to do with timing.''

Since land sales usually are precursors to building, Bone said he guesses that construction will soon pick up again.

``I'm expecting to have steady, moderate growth over the next year,'' Bone predicted.

Retail sales in Dare County, meanwhile, limped along but held positive ground despite a string of threatened hurricanes, gaining 3 percent in 1996 over the previous year.

Food and beverage receipts and occupancy receipts reflected the same unspectacular increase.

Currituck fared better, gaining 13 percent in gross retail sales and 18 percent in occupancy tax collections.

``I think our gross retail sales were affected by a number of things,'' Bone said. ``The threat of three hurricanes - one time the beach was evacuated for three days - that's money that you just don't get back.''

In fact, the Outer Banks was beat up by weather most of the year, Bone said.

``Not only did we have the hurricanes, last winter seemed like we were facing snowstorms and ice storms every other week.

Then the weather was abominable President's Day, Easter and Memorial Day weekends. Our spring weather last year was just atrocious.''

Bone said weekend visitors in the off-season won't tough it out like those who vacation for a week in the summer; they just won't come. And after evacuations, it normally takes about two weeks for business to recover. But a late storm could drive vacationers away for the rest of the season.

``Sometimes at the end of the season, you never cycle back up,'' Bone said. ``So it's a pretty bad blow.''

But Bone conceded that things could have been far more dismal, and weather far worse.

``At least we weren't hit by the hurricanes,'' he said.