BAD NEWS, GOOD NEWS: The dramatic decline...

BAD NEWS, GOOD NEWS: The dramatic decline in building permits for new single-family housing, above, highlights the distress of the construction industry, which is caught with a surplus of unsold new homes (D1). . . . But there’s good news, of a sort. When existing new houses are sold, and few are built to replace them, there will be a housing shortage. . . . “That’s good for people who own houses,” says Sanford Goodkin of KPMG Peat Marwick. “An intense product shortage brings back price inflation,” which has been used for decades by families here to “move up” to better housing.

SINGLE-FAMILY HOME PERMITS Building permits in Orange County, the first eight months of each year. 1990: 2,531 1989: 5,922 1988: 8,219 1987: 6,854 1986: 5,874