Quarterly housing units in California decline 10%: CIRB

March 2019 building permits came in hot with a 40 percent total unit increase compared to February 2019, including a 25 percent increase in single-family dwelling units and a 63 percent increase for multifamily – but that’s where the positive news ends, the California Home Building Foundation’s CIRB reported in May.

The fact of the matter is, if California’s permitting continues at this rate in the coming months without some drastic increases, 2019 could be the first year since 2009 that housing permit issuance decreases from the prior year, CIRB reported.

All housing categories, and even non-residential construction valuation categories, revealed permit decreases of at least 15 percent compared to March of 2018.

“With quarterly California housing statistics now available, we can see that year-to-date numbers are trending down as well,” CIRB said in a blog post. “The first three months of 2018 produced 27,440 total single- and multifamily dwelling units, while January through March of 2019 revealed 24,596 total units issued – a 10 percent decrease from Quarter 1 of last year.

“So, what does this mean for 2019 housing unit forecasts? Preliminary 2019 forecasts from CIRB show roughly 124,000 total new units, but in order to reach that, Quarters 2-4 would each need to average an additional 8,500 statewide units on top of the dwelling units already being permitted.”

Certain regions in California which are faring better than others when it comes to year-to-date building permits issued, including areas of Northern California and the central coast.