Housing production in the country’s most populous state fell again in October for the fourth consecutive month, the California Building Industry Association reported.
According to statistics compiled by the Construction Industry Research Board, a non-profit research group, permits were pulled for 2,108 total housing units in October, down 28% from the same month a year ago and down 28% from September.
Permits for single-family homes totaled 1,364, a drop of 37% from October 2009 and 21% from the previous month. Multi-family permits totaled 744, off 3% from a year ago and down 39% from September.
CBIA President Liz Snow called the latest figures “disappointing,” and said the state is on track to see the second-lowest number of housing starts since records began being kept in 1954.
For the first ten months of 2010, permits were pulled for 34,508 units. That’s an increase of 14% over the same period last year, when 30,194 permits were issued. However, permits for single-family homes are 2% behind last year’s pace for the first time this year. At the same time, multi-family permits were up 52%.
“Continued weakness in the job market, high foreclosure rates, and tighter lending standards making it difficult for builders to get projects off the ground are creating the ‘perfect storm’ to deter new-home construction, putting us on track to see the second-lowest year of housing production on record,” Snow said. “Until we see improvement in these areas, homebuilding, and the economy, will continue to struggle.”
CIRB has once again revised its housing forecast downward from 45,000 to 41,700 total units in 2010. That’s only 5,000 more houses than the record-low 36,421 units produced in 2009. CIRB has also revised its forecast for 2011 to 67,500 total units, down from the 74,000 units it projected last month.
