Mini building boom ends in California

California builders pulled permits to build 2,119 single-family housing units in August, the California Building Industry Association said -- about the same number as in July, when builders blamed a sharp decline on the demise of a $10,000 state tax credit for new-home purchases.

Looking back a year, single-family housing permits were down 5.9 percent in August, CBIA said, citing statistics compiled by the Construction Industry Research Board (CIRB).

Permits issued to build multifamily housing were down 17 percent from July to August, to 792, CBIA said, up from a low for the year of 671 in May, but a 66.5 percent decline from a year ago.

Single-family permits remain up 68 percent from February's lows, when builders took out 1,261 single-family permits. But all told, CIRB forecasts California builders will pull permits to build just 39,500 single-family and multifamily units in 2009, which would be the lowest total in records dating back to 1954.

In 2004, at the height of the boom, California builders started construction on 212,960 housing units, of which 151,417 were single-family homes.

Last month, CBIA blamed a 29 percent decline in permits pulled to build single-family homes from June to July on the discontinuation of the state's $10,000 tax credit for new-home purchases (see story).

The California Franchise Tax Board stopped accepting requests for the credit on July 2, after taking 12,138 applications -- more than it could fund with the $100 million allocated by lawmakers. By the end of August, the board had allocated all $100 million in credits to 10,659 homebuyers, or an average of $9,382 each. ...CONTINUED

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