Across Southern California’s Inland region, developers are looking with renewed interest at thousands of acres where residential communities were approved or under construction when the recession hit – but never finished.
“The economy has come to a good place,” said Steve Ruffner, president of KB Home, Southern California. The company’s earthmoving equipment and construction workers are restarting work at Spring Mountain Ranch, a 785-acre master-planned development northeast of Riverside.
No one is saying that home construction has rebounded, however. New building permits are being issued in modest numbers.
Only 1,811 single-family building permits were issued in the first five months of 2014 in Riverside County. The numbers are up 5% in the Coachella Valley and down 2.4% in western Riverside County over the same period in 2013.