Housing Permits Lowered Across East Bay California Housing Market

Building permits continue to drop statewide as developers hold back on construction until their standing inventories are sold off and California mortgage activity picks up.

The East Bay is no exception.

According to the California Building Industry Association, in November builders pulled 5,989 single-family home permits, down 3 percent from October and 38 percent from November 2005.

Multifamily permits dropped by 17 percent from October to 3,723 in November, which was down 26 percent from the same period last year. Overall, 9,712 residential building permits were taken out last month.

The statistics, compiled by the Construction Industry Research Board in Burbank, show total housing production down 22 percent in the first 11 months of 2006 for the California housing market, compared with the same period in 2005.

Seasonal adjustments help the picture a bit - CIRB Research Director Ben Bartolotto said that would make the November single-family number actually up by 11.9 percent compared with October, but down 41 percent from November 2005. Seasonally adjusted total units would be unchanged from October but down 37.1 percent from a year ago.

For the Oakland-Fremont-Hayward metropolitan statistical area, which includes Alameda and Contra Costa counties, 472 permits were pulled in November, down 35.2 percent from October and 43.3 percent from November 2005. These figures won’t increase much while home mortgage demand remains weak.

The Vallejo-Fairfield MSA shows 116 total permits taken out in November, a jump of 96.6 percent from October, but a year-over-year drop of 26.1 percent.

The East Bay’s bright spot is multifamily housing, which has been rising even as single-family permits have stalled.