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Housing Starts Jump in January

The Daily Transcript -- If January was any indication, housing construction might be on a modest upswing in 2011.

San Diego County jurisdictions granted permits for the construction of 466 housing units in the first month of the year, more than were granted in any of the last three Januarys, and more than in all but one month of 2010, according to numbers released by the Construction Industry Research Board (CIRB).

“It’s still anemic,” said Mark Riedy, executive director of the Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate at the University of San Diego, of the 466 permits issued in January. “I just can’t get excited about that. It might be more than the last three years, but the last three years have been anything but good.”

Compared to the monthly totals in 2010, last month would have trailed only June’s 559, and would have finished just ahead of the 440 pulled in May. There were 292 permits pulled in the last month of the year, after three successive months below the 200 mark. (Full Story)