O.C. Housing Construction Down 12%

Housing construction in O.C. is down 12% from last year, after falling 84% from 1999 to 2008.

This year’s drop is the smallest among California metropolitan areas. The only metro area that did better percentage wise than O.C. was Vallejo-Fairfield that saw the number of single-family home building permits rise 36% as of August.

Throughout California building permits for single-family homes fell 34%. The California Building Industry Association forecasts that the lowest amount of building permits on record will be issued this year. They expect only 39,500 housing permits to be issued.