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Home Building Hit Historical Low in 2009

Recent data from the Construction Industry Research Board confirmed what experts had long believed: 2009 has had the lowest home building activity in Orange County on record since they started keeping count in 1946.

According to the report, Orange County issued a mere 2,177 building permits for new homes, condos, and apartment units in 2009. This surpassed the 63-year low seen in 2008, when only 3,159 building permits were issued.

Of the permits issued last year, about 62% were classified as single-family residences, which included new houses, attached and semi-detached homes, and townhomes. This is the lowest it has been since the board started classifying property types in 1955.

Multi-family units, including apartment buildings and multi-story condos, were counted at 842. This makes 2009 only the second year to see less than 1,000 building permits in this category, the other being in 1955 as well.

Research showed that home building had followed a pattern of sharp peaks and bottoms for the past 60 years, with the lows occurring approximately every eight to 10 years. Since 2006, however, the numbers have been dropping steadily to the recent slump.

The biggest year-by-year drop on record was recorded from 1976 to 1982, when building permits fell over 82% from 30,500 to 5,400. This meant an average drop of 25,000 building permits a year.

This year’s decline is the second largest on record, with a difference of 74% compared to the 2006 count of 8,400. It also breaks a long-standing relative calm, where home building remained pretty much unchanged for the past 14 years.