Charlotte-area home construction tumbled even harder last month than the grim drops reported Thursday for builders nationwide and finished 2008 at the lowest level in years.
In Mecklenburg County, builders bought permits for just 86 single-family houses last month, the second consecutive month of 70 percent declines from the same month a year earlier. That was well off the 500-plus December levels prior to this downturn, and the lowest of any December since at least 1995, according to Observer analysis of county data.
For the year, Mecklenburg house permits were down 54 percent, to 2,734, compared with 2007.
For the eight-county area, all residential permits were down 63 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the last three months of 2007, according to Newton Graham Consultants, which uses public data compiled by a Rocky Mount firm.
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