78,000 homes were under construction at the end of September 2011 - a ten-year high, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported today.
There were 32,400 housing starts in January-September, 32% of which were one and two-family homes, 12% more than in the corresponding months of 2010. There were 10,690 housing starts in the third quarter, the fourth consecutive quarter in which housing starts exceeded 10,000 units.
36% of the housing starts in January-September were in the Central District, 17% were in the Northern District, 16% in the Southern District, 12% in the Tel Aviv District, 9% in the Haifa District, 7% in the Jerusalem District, and 2.2% in Judea and Samaria. The largest increase in housing starts was in the Southern District - up 38% compared with January-September 2010, followed by a 21% increase in the Tel Aviv District, and a 13% increase in the Southern District. Housing starts declined slightly - by less than 1% - in the Haifa and Northern districts.
Minister of Housing and Construction Ariel Atias said, "The growth in housing starts is the activity that will have the greatest influence to bring down home prices."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 30, 2011
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