Building Permits Suggest Signs of Housing Rebound

For the second straight month this year, building permits were issued for more than 1,000 new housing units in Orange County, further raising the hope that the home-building industry is starting to rebound from recession.

But the same June figures issued Wednesday by the Construction Industry Research Board in Burbank show that the value of permits for new industrial and retail buildings was off sharply. The value of new office construction and remodeling permits held fairly steady.

The permits issued for 1,104 houses, apartments and condominiums in June was the second-highest monthly total for the year, topped only by the 1,160 units authorized in May. It represents a comeback that has slowly built through the year from January’s bleak 129 units, the lowest monthly total in at least four years.

Jeff Meyers, a Newport Beach-based real estate consultant, said of the June figures: “It’s a positive that it’s starting to get up to reasonable levels, but it’s still significantly off of previous years.”

Despite the steady comeback, June’s total was less than half of the 2,241 units of new housing issued in the same month of last year. And the permits for 4,104 units issued in the first six months of 1991 are far shy of last year’s midyear total of 7,883.

Meyers said he is encouraged that it appears that the county’s oversupply of housing has been reduced, meaning that houses are selling quicker and that the market is ripe for new construction. And the market is strong for houses selling for less than $250,000, an area of the market that was quickly disappearing because of the housing price spiral that was interrupted by the recession.

But lenders are still holding back from making loans for new construction, he said, so “we won’t see building permit (activity) increase until next year.”

Most of the housing units authorized in June--662 versus 442--were for condominiums or apartment units, rather than houses. Most of the new housing units will be built in unincorporated county areas; most activity in cities will be in Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Irvine and Tustin.

The new housing permits, combined with additions and remodels, were valued in June at $125 million, down from $165 million the previous month and from $217 million in June of last year.

At the same time, the value of June permits for county industrial buildings fell to $2.6 million, from $6.5 million in the previous month and from $4.5 million in June, 1990. The value of retail permits was $10.4 million in June, down from $28.5 million in May and from $26.2 million in June, 1990.

Office building permits were valued at $15.3 million, down from $14.5 million the previous month and from $26.1 million in June, 1990.

New Single-Family Housing Unit Permits May, 1989: 948 June, 1991: 442 New Multifamily Housing Unit Permits May, 1989: 1,133 June, 1991: 662 Source: Construction Industry Research Board