New homes on rise: South lags behind national jump; multi-unit construction leads June

Department of Commerce said housing starts nationwide increased 14. Homes for Sale Multi-unit buildings, mostly apartments, accounted for nearly the entire increase. Builders broke ground on more homes and apartments in June, as the home-building industry tried to shake off a historically bad spring. At the same time, according to the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors, the supply of Homes for Sale increased from just over 4,000 in 2005 to nearly 12,000 in mid-2007. The inventory of homes for sale now hovers just under 9,000, and at the rate homes are being sold, it would take about a year to sell them all if no more came to market. Ford said builders don't expect to get back to where they were during the boom years, but back to normal. Jenkinson said home builders have been able to buy land at distressed prices, allowing them to sell new homes at prices competitive with existing homes. That's fewer permits than during the same period last year, when federal tax incentives boosted construction and sales, but it's an increase of about 18 percent over the same months in 2009 when the Real Estate market was near its lowest point. Nationally, if the pace of home construction seen in June were to continue, about 629,000 homes would be built this year, which would be an increase of about 42,000 over 2010, but only about half the number of housing starts that economists say must be built to sustain a healthy housing market. Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, called the gains "just a blip in the overall flat-lining trend of home-building activity. We expect our readers to engage in lively, yet civil discourse. Responsibility for the statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not postandcourier. If you find a comment that is objectionable, please click "report abuse" and we will review it for possible removal. Please be reminded, however, that in accordance with our Terms of Use and federal law, we are under no obligation to remove any third party comments posted on our website. If you have posted here before you'll need to sign up again, or if you've never posted before, start now by signing up.