Home building slows drastically

Permits for new single-family homes were down 53% for the first nine months of this year compared with the same period a year earlier, the California Building Industry Assn. said last week. It’s no surprise home building is drying up along with demand for new houses, said CBIA chief economist Alan Nevin. But he calls himself “disheartened” by the likelihood that fewer than 40,000 single-family permits will be pulled this year, which he called “a modern low for the state.”

Nevin said the glut of foreclosed properties in California meant there were many homes now for sale at prices less than the construction cost of a new house.

-- Peter Y. Hong