2010 New Housing Starts - CBIA

California Housing Starts in 2010

by Shane Pliskin

California builders are likely to remember 2010 as the second-slowest year on record for new housing starts, based on California Building Industry Association figures released Tuesday.

CBIA numbers - as well as comments from Inland Empire planners and builders - show the Ontario-San Bernardino-Riverside market is similarly slow.

Apartment and condo permits issued in the Ontario-San Bernardino-Riverside area are down by nearly 7 percent in 2010 through November.

But single-family permits have increased. Builders have pulled 4,565 permits for single-family homes through November. That number signifies an increase of 204 houses - or 4.7 percent - over 2009.

And there are signs of pending construction activity within the area. Upland-based Lewis Operating Co.'s apartment division is working toward getting permits for a 192-unit apartment development in Rancho Cucamonga.

The project, called Santa Barbara, would be built north of the Terra Vista shopping complex.

"We will be working with the city. We would hope to begin construction in 2011. We hope to get occupancies in 2012," said Randall Lewis, Lewis Operating executive vice president, who also said the project will be marketed as a luxury product.

Rancho Cucamonga planner Tabe Van Der Zwaag said he expects developers to be more active during the coming year in seeking approvals, but he still expects to see considerable caution when it comes to actual construction.

"Commercial is dead, but residential seems to be heating up," he said.

The California BIA's statistics show a 3.8 percent decline in permits issued up and down the state for new single-family homes. Those numbers compare permits issued through November with the same 11-month period in 2009.

A nearly 60 percent increase in the number of permits given for new California apartments and condos, however, means builders are on pace to begin more new residential projects this year than 2009, which was the slowest on record.

KB Home, which on Monday debuted three new neighborhoods at Lewis' Shady Trails development in north Fontana, still has yet to pull permits for all but six of the 171 homes expected to be built there, company spokesman Robert Kronenfeld said.

"We're looking to begin pulling permits once sales commence," he said.

Montclair is another city where planners are expecting to issue permits in 2011. The City Council there has given this year entitlements for the 365-unit Paseos and 129-unit Arrow Station projects.

Permits could be issued around mid-2011, Community Development director Steve Lustro said.

In Chino, permitting activity was slow in the city's large-scale Preserve and College Park, which are ultimately expected to be the site of homes for tens of thousands.

via The Sun

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