Record Low Volume Expected for CA Housing

California is usually the bellwether of the housing market, but new home production in the Golden State is expected to drop to the lowest level since accurate counts of statewide totals began in 1954, according to the Construction Industry Research Board. The board is forecasting just 79,000 starts for all of 2008. During the first four months of the year, single-family home production was down 58% from that of the same period last year, with 15,254 units permitted, while multifamily home production fell 24%, with 14,419 permits pulled. Overall, production was off 46%, and start figures for May show the slowdown continuing. Total starts for the month declined 37% from the level recorded a year earlier, CIRB reports. Just 3,531 single-family permits were pulled in the entire state in May. Don't look for the things to pick up in California any time soon, either, according to Alan Nevin, chief economist of the California Building Industry Association. The prospect of a major recovery by the end of the year is looking less and less likely as demand for new construction continues to wane in the face of the foreclosure crisis, Mr. Nevin said. "We see little change in the status of the new residential construction market for the balance of 2008 as homebuilders opt to wait out a return of demand," he said.