New-home builders suffered in SoCal in January

New-home builders are still feeling the pain in Southern California and throughout the Golden State.

The number of new construction permits pulled for homes in Southern California slumped significantly in three key Southland counties in January when compared to the same month a year prior. Riverside County appeared to be a bright spot, up 50% from the same month a year earlier, according to new data from the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California.

The number of new permits for construction were down 44% in Los Angeles County, 53% in Orange County and 41% in San Bernardino. Permits pulled were down for both single-family home sales and for apartment buildings.

“The pace of sales on a per project basis is still well below that of last year,” Jonathan Dienhart, director of published research for market tracker Hanley Wood told The Times. “It is early in the year, some areas are better than others, but it’s still just not particularly pleasant so far this year.”

Dienhart said that his firm’s data showed that the number of actively selling home projects in the region are about the same as last year though both sales and visits by prospective buyers are down.

The declines in new permits pulled played out across the Golden State in January. The California Building Industry Assn. said that permits pulled were down 18% from the same month a year ago, according to its data.

“It’s definitely a bit disappointing to see these numbers heading into the new year,” Mike Winn, the chief executive of the statewide group said in a statement. “However, the mood seems to be a bit more positive among builders and we expect to see better numbers than last year as we slowly continue to recover.”

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