Single-Family Home Starts Up 15% Through September

Construction of single-family homes in Ventura County showed a solid increase in the first nine months of this year over the same period last year, and was up even more substantially over the first nine months of 1993.

Builders started 1,448 houses in the county through September of this year, according to the Construction Industry Research Board, a trade group.

That is 15% more than the 1,258 houses started in the year-earlier period and 72% ahead of the 1993 pace.

However, construction of houses in the county declined on a month-to-month basis in September, the latest month tracked by the builders’ group.

A total of 85 single-family homes were started in September, down from 280 in August. The figure was also lower than the 143 homes started in September, 1994.

Construction of multifamily housing units, including apartments and condominiums, totaled 157 in the first nine months of this year--down 68% from 497 a year earlier but 15% ahead of the 136 units started in the comparable period of 1993.

Multifamily building activity in September of this year totaled a lackluster 15 units. That’s better than the mere two units started in August but just a fraction of the 130 started in September, 1994.

The total value of all new non-government construction projects in Ventura County, including residential, commercial and industrial projects, came to $467.1 million in the first nine months of this year.

That represents an increase of 10% over the same period last year and 41% over the comparable period in 1993.