TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Building continues but not much

ADVERTISEMENT

BY SHANNON BEHNKEN

THE TAMPA TRIBUNE

Published: February 20, 2009

TAMPA - Though the final quarter of 2008 brought the sound of fewer hammers, a low not heard of in at least 23 years, they haven't fallen silent.

Construction began on 932 single-family homes on the Suncoast in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to Houston-based Metrostudy, which tracks new home construction. That's a 32.9 percent decrease from last year the same quarter of 2007 and the first time in at least 23 years that local quarterly housing starts have fallen below 1,000.

Why are builders building any homes in this economy? If they want to stay in business, they say, they have to keep building at least some.

"Builders have reduced their inventory tremendously, and in some cases builders don't have any inventory," said Joseph Narkiewicz, executive vice president of the Tampa Bay Builders Association. "Even though there may still be discouraging signs in the economy, there's still demand prevalent in the marketplace."

Here's a look at the area's top 10 subdivisions where builders started new homes in the past year, according to Metrostudy. The Tampa division tracks construction in Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas, Citrus and Hernando counties.

•K-Bar Ranch (Hillsborough), 165

•FishHawk Ranch (Hillsborough), 146

•South Fork (Hillsborough), 125

•Oak Creek (Hillsborough), 113

•Cypress Creek (Hillsborough), 109

•Concord Station (Pasco), 103

•Ayersworth Glen (Hillsborough), 100

•Summerfield Crossing (Hillsborough), 89

•Trillium (Hernando), 87

•Ventura Bay (Hillsborough), 74

Part of the reason home starts are down is that many builders have been unable to sell the houses they have 've already built. There were 2,617 empty new houses sitting on the market in the fourth quarter, compared with 3,496 during the same period of 2007 last year.

Metrostudy's Tony Polito said it would take about four months to sell those houses at the current pace.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT