SACRAMENTO, CA – August 24, 2010 – (RealEstateRama) — Housing production in California continued to increase in July as a result of strong performance in the multifamily sector, the California Building Industry Association announced today.
According to statistics compiled by the Construction Industry Research Board (CIRB), permits were pulled for 4,165 total housing units in July, up 35 percent from the same month a year ago but down 10 percent from June. Permits for single-family homes totaled 1,951, down 9 percent from July 2009 and down 31 percent from the previous month, while multifamily permits totaled 2,214, up 134 percent from a year ago and up 25 percent from May.
For the first seven months of the year, permits were pulled for 25,756 units, up 22 percent when compared to the same period in 2009 when 21,173 permits were issued. Single-family permits were up 7 percent while multifamily permits rose 51 percent.
Liz Snow, CBIA’s President and CEO, said the increase was another positive step in the right direction but continued to be dismayed by historically-low construction levels.
“We’re very pleased to see continued increases in home construction, as I’m sure are the people being put back to work on the new projects,” said Snow. “Unfortunately, the amount of unsold inventory continues to weigh on job-generating home construction, and we still expect to see modest improvement this year while still hovering around record-low production numbers.”
Snow noted that CIRB is now forecasting a total of 47,500 units will be built in 2010, an increase of 30 percent – roughly 11,000 units – over the record-low posted in 2009.
“The improvement over last year is still welcomed news, and we hope to see continued increases throughout the remainder of the year and into 2011,” said Snow.
###
The California Building Industry Association is a statewide trade association representing thousands of homebuilders, remodelers, subcontractors, architects, engineers, designers, and other industry professionals. More information is available on the Association’s Web site, www.cbia.org.
The Construction Industry Research Board (CIRB) is a nonprofit research center established in 1974 to provide statistical information on the California building and construction industry. More information is available on the CIRB Web site, www.cirbdata.com.
To subscribe to CBIA press releases and receive them as they are distributed, please visit the newsroom section of our Web site and click on the RSS subscription button.
Media Contact:
Michael Castillo
Communications Manager
(916) 443-7933 ext. 346
mcastillo (at) cbia (dot) org
