According to the Construction Industry Research Board, home builders have began construction on 36,282 new homes in the first six months of 2008. This figure is significantly lower than housing starts in 2007, close to 44 percent lower. The amount of new condominiums and apartments fell roughly 22 percent, while new single-family homes declined almost 55 percent.
6,443 building permits were issued in June to California home builders, a decrease of close to 11 percent from May and down 44 percent from June of last year.
One area that was reported to have the most drastic decline in starts of single-family homes is in Riverside/San Bernardino. Only 3,473 permits were issued in 2008 for this region, a massive decrease from the 14,000 plus permits issued during the first half of 2007. Three years ago, single-family home permits in the Inland Empire exceeded 31,000.
The chief economist for the California Builder Industry Association – Alan Nevin, stated that the decline in single-family construction is greater in areas lacking large employment centers.
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