Triangle Home Starts Up but Sales are Down 11%

Article in the Triangle Business Journal today...
New home construction increased in the Triangle in the third quarter, but sales declined as the homes stayed on the market longer.
The data are the first real indication that the national struggles of the new-housing market have hit home, according to Houston research firm Metrostudy, which released the data.
Metrostudy said developers started 4,445 single-family homes in the Triangle in the quarter, up 8 percent from the 4,009 housing starts reported in the same period last year.
But closings on new homes dropped 11 percent to 3,915.
There were also 111,527 new and under-construction homes on the market at the end of the third quarter. That's 9.4 months of supply, up from 7.5 months at the end of the third quarter of 2006.
"The Triangle is one of the last markets in the nation to feel the impact of the housing downturn," Ed Dunnavant, director of Metrostudy's North Carolina division, said in a prepared statement.
Metrostudy also said that the Triangle will be one of the first areas to recover from the downturn because of a strong local economy. Strong job growth, low unemployment, affordable housing, a cheap cost of living and inventory levels that haven't completely bottomed out all work in the area's favor, Dunnavant said.