Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio account for 36% of single family housing starts in the twenty largest metro housing markets. Phoenix, Tampa and Riverside, Orlando and Los Angeles are the only housing boom cities still left on the top twenty list. Washington has moved up to third place on the strength of tens of thousands of new federal jobs.

Dallas and Houston together now have more multi family permits than New York City. New York City had nearly 25% more multi family starts than Dallas and Houston combined as recently as 2007. The recession cut permits about 80% in New York City but only about 50% in the two Texas cities. Permits are up from a year ago in many college and oil patch towns that escaped both the 2005-06 housing boom and the worst of the ongoing economic recession.

Forty-two cities are now issuing more housing permits than they did at the peak of the housing boom in late 2005/early 2006.Many of these cities are very small markets. This should not be interpreted as a list of cities leading the housing market or the economy out of recession. These cities simply missed most of the recession as they did the previous housing boom. Except for New Orleans and Buffalo the list includes only small and midsize cities. Fourteen of the twenty cities with the largest increase in permits since the peak of the housing boom are either on the Gulf Coast or in the Plains States. The gulf cities are getting a boost from Katrina rebuilding funds. The cities in the Plains States with resource based economies fared better during the housing recession than cities with economies dominated by manufacturing, construction or finance.

The twenty cities with the largest decline in housing permits from the peak of the housing boom more than three years ago are all paying back the overbuilding during the housing boom or the phantom sales of homes to households who overreached and could not carry their mortgage even before job losses began across the economy. Each of these cities is now beset with a relatively large surplus of homes for sales and, in most cities, continuing decline in home prices. Homebuilders in these cities are competing with a large selection of existing homes priced at or below the cost of constructing a new home.

The twenty cities with the largest decline in housing permits from the peak of the housing boom more than three years ago are all paying back the overbuilding during the housing boom or the phantom sales of homes to households who overreached and could not carry their mortgage even before job losses began across the economy. Each of these cities is now beset with a relatively large surplus of homes for sales and, in most cities, continuing decline in home prices. Homebuilders in these cities are competing with a large selection of existing homes priced at or below the cost of constructing a new home.

For more information, please see US Metro Housing Markets – October 2009 – Cities 1-100.