California Housing Starts Slip Again

More bad news for California's home builders as housing starts dipped again in September. According to the California Industry Research Board, builders in the state pulled just 2,920 permits in the entire state in September. That's down only 1% from the previous month, but it represents a 36% slide from the same month a year ago. As a result of the continued decline, the CIRB has revised its 2009 forecast down from 39,500 units to 37,700, which would be "by far" the fewest number of starts on record in the heretofore "golden" Golden State. The California Building Industry Association has called for extending the state's $10,000 home buyer tax credit, saying that traffic to new home subdivisions has fallen drastically since it expired. "The tax credit program only lasted for four months due to its growing popularity, but we saw a significant increase in traffic during that time, which led to an increase in job-generating new-home construction," said CBIA President Liz Snow. "Extending the program would help continue that positive momentum and would help reinvigorate the overall economy."