Florida Top Volume State, California Top Home Value State

Permit totals for five of the nine regions of the country were higher through three months of this year than over the first quarter of 1999, despite the slight overall decline in the national permit volume. The number of permits issued in the largest region of the nation -the South Atlantic - faded 6.8% between the first three months of last year and the first quarter of 2000. The West South Central states lost the most in percentage terms of any region in the country through March of this year, and the New England and Rocky Mountain regions also lost ground when compared to their 1999 year-to-date pace. However, the overall impact of declines in these three regions of the country was nearly offset by solid gains throughout the Midwest and Middle Atlantic regions, and in portions of the Pacific Coast.

Double-digit over-the-year increases were registered in 10 of the 24 growth states. Among the larger states getting off to a very good start this year were Michigan (+15.7%), California (+15.6%), Colorado (+11.8%), Illinois (+9.7%), and New Jersey (+9.4%). The sharpest declines among large states so far in 2000 have been recorded in permit volume for Florida (-14.5%) and Texas (-13.8%).

Even with the steep decline through the first three months of this year, Florida remains the volume leader with 35,222 housing permits issued through March. With 33,280 permits issued so far in 2000, California has overtaken Texas (32,822 residential permits) as the second largest state for home building as measured by total volume. The mix differs considerably among these top three home building states, however, with permits for single-family homes making up 83.2% of the Texas total, 73.3% of the Florida total, but only 66.3% of the California total through three months of 2000.