Single-Family Housing Starts At Record Low Levels, but L.A. Times Sees Signs of Improvement

We have a couple of items for you today on the homebuilding front.

First, we're out with the latest housing start figures for L.A. and Ventura counties. The big news there is the continued dearth in single-family home construction locally and statewide. In fact, the Construction Industry Research Board now projects that just 21,500 single-family permits will be issued statewide - the lowest level on record.

But apartment construction is doing reasonably well, which has driven the total permit numbers up nicely in both counties — albeit from a very, very low level in 2010. To date, total housing starts in L.A. County are up 35 percent from last year, and in Ventura County they're up 45 percent.

The press release and links to local and statewide permit activity can be found here.

But there are continued signs the long winter in the homebuilding industry may be coming to an end.

The L.A. Times reported Sunday that there are early stirrings of recovery in the Inland Empire, which was hit even harder than coastal California by the Great Recession.

The article, by reporter Alana Semuels, points to foreign manufacturers opening shop there to take advantage of low land prices and the cheap dollar, increased retail sales and job growth. And on the housing front, it quotes a real estate investor who has snapped up 3,000 residential lots in Riverside County during the past three years. Jim Lytle's Rancon Group plans to sell them to homebuilders as the market recovers. He sees that happening within the next year or so:

We really believe we're at the bottom. We're already seeing pockets of strength in some of these locations.

And if you read to the end of the lengthy piece, it gets even better. The reporter interviews a young couple looking to buy a new home in Corona, priced some $300,000 less than a similar home in Orange County. And even Christopher Thornberg, an economist who was one of the first to predict the housing crisis would occur, is becoming a bit more bullish:

I do think that ultimately this will all get cleaned up. The cycle is being drawn out, but Southern California is moving again, and that's going to have an impact.

You can read the entire article here.