Housing starts rose 10% in California in September, but all of the gain -- and then some -- was registered in the multifamily sector.
According to the Construction Industry Research Board, builders in the now less-than golden Golden State pulled permits for 3,291 units in September. That's a jump of 10% from the same month a year ago, but a 35% drop from the previous month.
However, multifamily permits rose 45% from a year ago, while permits for detached houses slipped 16% over the same period. Between August and September, though, multifamily permits dropped 25% and single-family permits fell 41%.
For the first nine months of the year, starts were up 6%, from 32,386 to 34,386. But the same dichotomies held true: single-family were down 15% while multifamily permits were up 37%.
Mike Winn, president of the California Building Industry Association, welcomed the continued increase in building permits, but noted that the industry still has a long way to go before it could signal any meaningful recovery. "We'd like to see these numbers continue to trend upward through the remainder of the year and throughout 2012 so we can help put thousands of Californians back to work," he said.
CIRB is now forecasting a total of 46,000 starts for 2011 -- 21,500 of the single-family variety and 24,500 multifamily units. If the estimate holds true, it would be the lowest number of single-family permits since the research board began tracking permits in 1954.
