Following three strong months of year-over-year increases, home-building activity in the Indianapolis area fell in November.

In the nine-county metropolitan area, the number of home-construction permits filed last month dropped to 225, a 13-percent decrease from the same month in 2010, according to the Builders Association of Greater Indianapolis.

Year-to-date, the number of filings through November is 3 percent below last year's pace. A total of 3,359 permits have been filed through November, compared with 3,455 during the first 11 months of 2010.

In Marion County, 41 single-family building permits were filed last month, a drop of 16 percent over November 2010.

Hamilton County registered a gain of 3 percent, or 96 permits.

The amount of permits filed last month decreased 4 percent in Johnson County and 41 percent in Hendricks County.

Without a better December, area residential builders could suffer their worst year in more than a quarter-century. 

Home construction has fallen dramatically since the first part of this century, when area permits topped 13,000 annually from 2000 to 2005, including a peak of 15,054 filed in 2001.