2009 Austin home starts projected to be half of 2007 total

From Austin Business Journal, January 7, 2009...

The news was bleak at the first joint economic housing forecast for the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin and the Austin Board of Realtors.

According to Eldon Rude, director of the Austin market for the market research firm Metrostudy, housing starts in 2009 will total roughly 6,000, a 25 percent drop compared with the 8,000 new home starts in 2008.

“Things will probably get tougher before they get better,” Rude said. Austin’s 8,000 new home starts in 2008 represented a sharp drop from the 12,400 new home starts in 2007.

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Austin area home starts rise but market still shaky

From Austin Business Journal, July 1, 2008...

New home construction starts in the Austin area rose 22 percent from the first to the second quarter, but building remains far below where it was this time last year.

Area builders started 2,814 homes in the second quarter, according to the latest report from Dallas-based Residential Strategies Inc. That's up from the 2,303 starts in the first quarter but down 19 percent compared with second quarter 2007.

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