JANUARY HOME CONSTRUCTION FIGURES STRONG IN THE WEST;
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BENEFITS FROM RISING INDUSTRIAL-BUILDING
SALES
The U.S. Commerce Department reported today that construction starts on new
homes and
apartments nationwide increased only slightly in January despite earlier optimistic
predictions by Wall
Street analysts. Starts rose 2 percent to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.35 million last
month
following a sharp 11 percent drop in December. The release did, however, contain good
news for
some regions. In the West, starts climbed 29.8 percent to a rate of 344,000 a year, more
than
recovering from a 25.6 decline in December. The sharp drop for western states during that
month
has been attributed largely to harsh winter weather.
In related news, the American Industrial Real Estate Association has announced
that a
dramatic 46 percent rise in the amount of industrial building space sold, and nearly 30
million square
feet of space leased, reflected strong increases in user and investor activity in the five-
county Los
Angeles Basin during 1996.

Volume 4, Bulletin 6 -- February 20, 1997