Gain Posted in Monthly Housing Permits : Construction: The September figure was more than double August’s, but the annual total is off more than 20%.

In a surge that halted a two-month plunge in permit activity, builders in Orange County obtained permits in September to build 1,101 residential units in coming months.

Most were for apartments and condominiums, with only 433 permits issued for single-family homes.

For the first nine months, builders obtained 10,108 residential permits, down 20.5% from 12,717 for the same period a year earlier. Of the total, 2,971 were for single-family units--a 52% decline from last year--and 7,137 were for apartments and condominiums, up 10% from last year, according to figures from the Construction Industry Research Board.

The number of permits issued in September were down 2% for the same month a year ago, when 1,125 were issued. But the September permits more than doubled the 491 permits obtained in August.

Industry experts said it is too early to tell if the month’s results represent an abnormal bulge in activity or a return to a more normal pace. Typically, it takes a year or more for construction to actually begin once a permit is obtained.

Ben Bartolotto, CIRB research director, said he believes that September’s upbeat showing signals a return to a more normal pace and underscores economists’ predictions that while the nation and the region are heading into a recession, it will be a mild one.

The sharp decrease in permit activity in the county in July and August, Bartolotto said, now appears to have been the result of builders “taking a breather” while they assessed the economy and their plans for the future.

But while the September numbers are up significantly from the previous two months, they are not spread evenly throughout the county.

To Steven Johnson, a partner and vice president of the Meyers Group, a regional residential construction consulting firm, that means it is too early to declare a return to normal. He believes that building permit activity will fluctuate into the first quarter of 1991.

Builders don’t obtain permits until their financing is arranged, Johnson said. “And there is a lot of unevenness in construction funding right now. Lenders are pulling back and are only funding a few selected projects, and that is affecting the permit numbers. The flow of money is uneven, so you get these highs and lows.”

Tustin, with permits for 422 multifamily units, and Irvine, with 123, were responsible for 81% of the 668 multifamily permits issued by the county’s 29 cities. And four cities--Cypress, Newport Beach, Los Alamitos and Yorba Linda--issued 90% of the 433 single-family permits builders obtained in September.

County government, which issues permits for unincorporated areas like Rancho Santa Margarita, East Orange and Aliso Viejo--where most of the developable land in the county is located--issued only 40 residential permits in September. Only eight of the county permits were for single-family homes. That compares to 893 permits--254 for single-family homes--issued in September, 1989.

The county’s building department traditionally awards about half the total residential permits issued in the county each year. For the first nine months, the county issued 4,847 residential permits, down 13% from 5,579 permits in the first nine months of 1989.

Commercial and industrial permit activity appears to be following the same trend line as residential. The value of all non-residential permits issued in the county in the first nine months of the year is 19.1% lower than for the same period of 1989, while the $130.6-million total valuation for September was nearly double the $66.4 million reported for August.

Almost a third of the total commercial and industrial permit value in September came from a single project, the $40-million Triangle Square commercial development planned for Costa Mesa.