REAL ESTATE : The Figures Prove It: 1990 Was Rotten Year for Building Trades

Everybody knows construction went into a slump last year: In residential development, fewer people were buying houses; on the commercial side, the number of tenants for office buildings dropped. And even big developers had trouble borrowing money to build almost any type of building, even if there was a demand for it.

How bad was it? According to F.W. Dodge, a division of McGraw-Hill Inc. that tracks construction contracts, it wasn’t very good.

The value of contracts let in Orange County for offices, factories, schools, government buildings and other non-residential buildings dropped 14% last year. The dollar value of those contracts dipped to $1.1 billion, from nearly $1.3 billion in 1989.

Residential construction fell even further, to $1.1 billion in 1990 from $1.6 billion a year earlier, a drop of nearly one-third.

For all construction contracts, the total dropped about a quarter, from $2.9 billion in 1989 to $2.2 billion last year.

So far, 1991 hasn’t looked much better, Dodge says.

In January--the latest month available--all types of contracts were down by half from a year ago, from $223 million last year to $111 million this year. Residential contracts alone were down two-thirds.

Home building is expected to rebound later this year. On the commercial side, however, experts predict another drop, at least for offices.