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O.C. Home Building At 10-Year Low

After suffering an 84% drop over the last nine years, the Orange County home building industry fell another 12% this year, according to September building permit reports from the Construction Industry Research Board.

Less than a thousand building permits have been handed out this year, compared to almost 6,000 in 1999. The numbers have steadily declined since then, bumping up only slightly in 2006 during the sub-prime lending boom.

The biggest percentage drop this month occurred in the Madera-Chowchilla metro, which fell 74% this year. Other slow markets include Salinas, Merced, and Napa, with drops of 71%, 69%, and 57% respectively.

Home building for single-family homes, which make up the bulk of California real estate, was down 34% state-wide. The California Building Industry Association predicts that just under 40,000 housing units will be issued this year, making it the lowest on record.

On the plus side, the industry seems to be picking up from month to month. The CIRB's August report showed a drop of 38% compared to a year ago, meaning the figures went up slightly in September.

The report shows that O.C. is still doing relatively well-the county-wide drop is one of the smallest among other California metros. Only one metro, the Vallejo-Fairfield area, did better with a 36% rise in home building as of August this year.

The O.C. market has also been improving slightly on a week-to-week basis. Earlier this month, the CIRB released a similar report showing the decline at 17% from July 2008 to July 2009. O.C. also came in second to Vallejo-Fairfield in the report.