Home building here falls, but not as steeply
The home building business in St. Louis is still searching for a bottom. But it seems to be getting closer to finding one.
Permits for new single-family homes in June in seven local counties were down just 11 percent from the same month last year, according to new data from the Home Builders Association of St. Louis and Eastern Missouri.
Yes, "just" 11 percent. It was the shallowest year-over-year decline since October 2007, and the third straight month of relatively mild drops.
And it echoed national figures released last week that showed June was the best month for both permits and housing starts since last year — the latest signs that supply and demand are starting to fall back into place in the housing market fast cash.
But home building has fallen a long way.
Through the first six months of the year, permits were issued on 1,357 single-family homes in the seven Missouri counties the local Home Builders Association tracks. That’s down from 4,938 during the same period in 2005, a 73 percent drop.
At that point, there’s almost nowhere to go but up.