May 22nd, 2009 10:50 PM

Residential construction activity remains low nationally, but the Orlando market is still among the highest in housing starts, according to a May 19 report by Metrostudy.

The Orlando market reported about 12,000 home starts for the 12 months ending March 2009, ranking it fourth highest among local markets nationwide. Houston led that list with 22,502 starts during that same period, while Dallas/Fort Worth posted 17,638 starts and Phoenix was No. 3 with 12,302 starts.

The Orlando area also was fifth in move-ins, or absorptions, with 18,423 posted for the same 12-month period. Houston also topped that list with 28,326, followed by Dallas/Fort Worth with 23,957, Phoenix with 21,838 and Atlanta with 20,007.

Orlando also topped the list of metro areas with the highest supply of finished and vacant inventory. Orlando had 17,896 units of vacant inventory, an 11.7-month supply. Atlanta followed with 14,599 units of finished and vacant inventory, while the Southern California coastal market had the next highest months of supply with 11.5.

Houston-based Metrostudy forecast 490,000 housing starts nationwide for 2009, which was a lower forecast than general economists’ 520,000 to 550,000 starts for the year.

The U.S. Department of Commerce reported 458,000 starts in April at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate.

“We expected the sharp drop in the April number, as we did the March decline,” said Brad Hunter, Metrostudy chief economist and national director of consulting, in a prepared statement.

Hunter attributes that decline to a high inventory of existing homes, tight credit for builders and prices that are lower than the cost of the home.

Metrostudy’s data comes from its own count of builder starts in subdivisions, starting with a 100 percent count of activity in individual projects in 256 counties in all or part of 84 metropolitan statistical areas.

Source: Orlando Business Journal - Anjali Fluker

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