Hafter, who is involved in seven projects, showed up for a building permit this week at the Sacramento city planning department counter, and found himself 20th in line. He waited 45 minutes as planning officials rushed from customer to customer. Brian Underwood, a custom home builder who focuses on Elk Grove, said the boom hit his long moribund niche of the market last year. He built barely more than one custom home a year from 1991 until last year. For example, the huge IDI company of Atlanta was planning to tilt up walls Friday on its first two Sacramento County buildings, a research and development structure and a warehouse in North Natomas.
Demand seems to be high.
Several events, going back a few years, appear to be behind the building boom, industry and government officials say. After several years in the early 1990s when the region actually lost jobs, the Sacramento area has gained 20,000 jobs net each year for the last three years, Gianini said. California was slower than much of the country in breaking out of the early 1990s recession. Northern California is coming back more strongly than Southern California, Smiley said. Another factor fueling the Sacramento boom, several industry observers said, is the pent-up demand for building of all kinds due to several wet winters in which little construction occurred.