TINA FORDE, Valley Press Business Editor

January 28, 2006

AV home building breaks 5,000 mark

SACRAMENTO - Builders pulled 5,076 housing permits in the Antelope Valley in 2005, breaking the 5,000 mark for the first time, according to the California Building Industry Association in a report released Friday. "Since we have been keeping records in the early 1980s," said Gretchen Gutierrez, executive director of the AV chapter of the BIA, "it is the first time we reached the 5,000 benchmark. It is quite an accomplishment for the Antelope Valley. "It shows how much of the county growth is coming to us."

-

In all of Los Angeles County, 25,538 housing permits were pulled in 2005. "We have 5,076 of them," Gutierrez said. "One in five units in the entire county was done here. That's an amazing number." The 5,076 figure includes single-family and multi-family units, but for Palmdale it makes no difference, as no multi-family permits have been pulled there for two years. Lancaster recorded 78 multi-family permits in 2005, down from 369 in 2004, for a decline of 78.9%.

-

The total number of Antelope Valley permits in 2005 represents a 38.2% increase in single-family starts over 2004. Factoring in the negative 78.9% figure from the drop in multi-family starts in Lancaster, the year's increase in starts for the AV from 2004 to 2005 is 27.4%. Lancaster outdid Palmdale in number of housing starts in 2005, with 2877 units to Palmdale's 1,581.

The dollar value of new housing starts was $517,051 million for Lancaster and $371,767 million for Palmdale. In the unincorporated areas of the Antelope Valley, 618 permits were pulled, for an increase of 22.4%.

-