REAL ESTATE : They’re Building More Single Homes, Fewer Apartments in Orange County

It looks like Orange County will end 1988 with a substantial decrease in the construction of apartments but a big increase in single-family homes.

The Construction Industry Research Board in Burbank says that through November--latest figures available--local governments had issued permits for 10,345 new houses, the last step before construction. That’s up 19.8% from the first 11 months of last year, when only 8,635 permits were issued.

The county’s booming economy--and widespread expectations in the first half of the year that an unsuccessful slow-growth initiative would pass--spurred a strong demand for homes.

But permits for multi-family units--which include apartments and condominiums--fell 26.1% through November, to 10,969 from 14,848. Most of that decrease probably came in apartments, which experts say are becoming increasingly unprofitable to build in Orange County due to the high price of land.

Condo sales have been doing well as condos became an alternative to Orange County’s extremely expensive new homes, which market researchers say now cost on the average more than $300,000.

The Orange County picture isn’t much different from the rest of the state, says the research board. Permits for construction of houses statewide rose 18.5% during the first 11 months of 1988, while multi-family permits dropped 21%.