California home builders started 4,238 houses, apartments, condos and townhouses in June, beating the same time last year by 19 percent, the California Building Industry Association announced this morning. The number adds up to the most permits since Dec. 2008, the CBIA reported.
The same didn't hold true for Sacramento. Builders in the capital region - Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado and Yolo counties - started 298 residential dwellings in June - 22 percent fewer than a year ago.
But both Sacramento and the state as a whole beat May numbers.
Driving the statewide surge were starts of multifamily units such as condos, apartments and townhouses. Permits for single-family homes were actually down 9 percent statewide from a year ago. Sacramento had no new starts of multifamily units in June. That's why it bucked the statewide trend and reported fewer overall starts than last year.
The June numbers provided a good look at the first half of 2010. Sacramento's 1,538 housing starts from January through June are 3.6 percent fewer than the same time in 2009. The 72 housing starts in Yuba and Sutter counties are down 1.4 percent from the same time last year.
Statewide, builders reported the opposite - a 17 percent increase in housing starts over the same time in 2009.
But bottom line, the industry is in a serious funk. All these numbers are the lowest in a couple of generations.
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