Single Family Starts PLUNGE

From the Central Valley Business Times website : Bakersfield DOWN over 50%

Single-family housing starts plunge 37 percent

California builders started 37.7 percent fewer single-family homes in November 2006 than they did a year earlier, according to figures released Tuesday by the California Building Industry Association.

Single-family starts were sharply lower across most of the Central Valley with only the Yuba City-Marysville metropolitan area seeing a gain. It posted a 24.6 percent year-over-year increase.

While comparisons to November 2005 were almost uniformly down, there were some metro areas that saw increases over October 2006 numbers, the CBIA says.

Homebuilders’ continuing efforts to reduce their standing inventory and the Thanksgiving holiday are cited by the CBIA as reasons for the slump.

When multi-family housing starts are included in the mix, overall housing production dropped by 9 percent in November compared to October and by almost 34 percent when compared to November 2005, the California Building Industry Association says.

In November, permits were pulled for 5,989 single-family homes statewide, down 3 percent from the previous month and down 38 percent from November 2005, while multifamily housing starts — condos and apartments — totaled 3,723, down 17 percent from the previous month and down 26 percent from November 2005.

In the Central Valley, most markets saw sharp declines in single-family housing starts in November, compared to a year earlier:
• Bakersfield, down 51.4 percent
• Chico, down 48.5 percent
• Fresno, down 61.6 percent
• Hanford, down 13.2 percent
• Madera, down 64.1 percent
• Merced, down 70.2 percent
• Modesto, down 43.8 percent
• Sacramento, down 42.1 percent
• Stockton, down 3.3 percent
• Visalia-Porterville, down 4.2 percent
• Yuba City-Marysville, up 24.6 percent