CLIPBOARD : Single-Family Home Futures

Is the drought easing in the home-building industry?

During May, the most recent month for which information is available, there were more permits issued for building single-family homes than in any month since December, 1989. The 632 permits, a 52% increase from the previous month, marked the continuation of a more or less rising trend that has been going on since January. The May total brought the 1991 five-month figure to 1,733, or 1.5% more than the January-May number of last year.

Nine cities now have larger totals on a year-to-date basis, with Cypress having easily the largest gain. An additional 17 cities and the unincorporated areas lag behind 1990 totals.

Here’s how the cities stack up, listed from the largest increase to the largest decrease in permits issued:

Jan.-May Jan.-May 1990-’91 City 1990 1991 Difference Cypress 4 233 +229 San Juan Capistrano 48 111 +63 Buena Park 4 30 +26 Tustin 38 57 +19 Mission Viejo 45 58 +13 Placentia 18 28 +10 La Habra 3 8 +5 Anaheim 91 95 +4 Westminster 0 1 +1 Huntington Beach 28 28 No change Los Alamitos 0 0 No change Garden Grove 2 0 -2 Fountain Valley 4 1 -3 Fullerton 7 4 -3 Seal Beach 7 4 -3 Stanton 4 0 -4 Laguna Beach 26 21 -5 Villa Park 6 0 -6 Yorba Linda 117 111 -6 Costa Mesa 50 42 -8 Irvine 25 8 -17 La Palma 19 0 -19 Orange 45 25 -20 Dana Point 42 9 -33 Newport Beach 55 22 -33 Brea 34 0 -34 Santa Ana 40 5 -35 San Clemente 82 11 -71 Unincorporated areas 863 585 -278 Laguna Niguel * N/A 236 -- COUNTY TOTAL 1,707 1,733 +26

*New city for 1990 tabulations; 1990 data before July is included in “unincorporated areas” total.

Source: Construction Industry Research Board