Hot Market Boosts Building Permits 18%

A tight apartment market and hot new-home sales have pushed Orange County home building permits up 18% from 1996, a year that had been considered strong for builders.

Walter Hahn, an E&Y; Kenneth Leventhal real estate consultant in Newport Beach, said South County is creating the most jobs--and heavy housing demand among highly paid high-tech workers. Builders are focusing on homes priced $250,000 and up and on apartments in South County, Hahn said.

Craig Rutter, a new arrival whose company sells backup power systems, said he liked a one-bedroom Laguna Beach apartment going for $775 a month but lost out. “They finally called me back and said, ‘We’re not asking that anymore. We’re asking $100 more because we’ve had three higher offers,’ ” Rutter said.

Hahn predicts “higher home prices across the board” that “may very well lead to double-digit appreciation in Orange County’s housing prices again, possibly within the next 24 months.”

*

E. Scott Reckard covers real estate for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7407 and at scott.reckard@latimes.com