March 2019 building permits came in hot with a 40% total unit increase compared to February 2019, including a 25% increase in single-family dwelling units and a 63% increase for multifamily – but that’s where the positive news ends.
All housing categories, and even non-residential construction valuation categories, revealed permit decreases of at least 15% 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. 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% 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.
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