Date: Fri 12-Feb-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

state-housing-starts

Full Text:

State Housing Starts In 1998 Highest In A Decade

HARTFORD (AP) -- The state issued more than 11,500 permits for new housing

last year, making 1998 the best year for housing starts in more than a decade.

The figures represent a 27.5 percent increase over 1997 when 9,054 permits

were passed out, the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD)

said Tuesday.

A strong December helped boost the numbers, officials said. Communities

throughout the state issued 1,129 housing permits in the last month of the

year -- up 81.5 percent from December 1997.

Economists said the numbers reflect an overall confidence in the state

economy.

"We sort of came off the scare of the global meltdown of financial

institutions," said William A. McEachern, an economics professor at the

University of Connecticut in Storrs. "We seemed to have bounced back, so

consumer confidence was coming back, and interest rates were really low --

historically low."

But the numbers are still well below those reached in the boom years of the

mid-1980s.

In 1986, the state issued some 28,000 building permits - well over twice as

many as last year.

But those numbers were inflated by developers who were building homes on

speculation, said Chris Cooper, a spokesman for the DECD. That didn't happen

last year, he said.

"These aren't speculative houses. For the most part, these are pretty much

bought and paid for before [the builders] go for the permit," Cooper said.