With a good size jump in starts in March, the California Industry Research Board is now looking for an overall increase in production this year.
CIRB is now projecting 55,000 total permits will be pulled in 2011, up from 2010's total of 44,925. That's still down from 64,962 permits in 2008. But nobody's complaining.
Total starts climbed 9% in March in the Golden State, thanks to a strong showing in the multi-family sector, according to the research group.
Permits were pulled for a total of 4,130 units, compared to 3,785 in March 2010 and 2,449 in February. Permits for single-family houses totaled just 1,644 units, a 32% decline from March a year ago but up 28% from the previous month. Multi-family permits totaled 2,486, 82% better than March last year and 113% from February.
For the first three months of the year, permits were pulled for 9,360 total units, down 10% compared to the same period in 2010, when 10,371 permits were issued. But Mike Winn, president of the California Building Industry Association, found it encouraging to see an increase in permits for the first time this year after what seemed to be a slow start.
"With builders rushing to pull permits before code changes requiring fire sprinklers in all new homes took effect in January, we got off to a slow start," Winn said. "But it's great to see that the modest recovery we were hoping for seems to be getting back on track. As the economy slowly improves and employers begin to add more workers to their payrolls, we expect to see construction pick up as consumers begin to regain their confidence in the housing market and create a greater demand for new homes."
