Blue state blues: Detroit area housing starts plummet

Michigan is a state the Democrats view as a reliable source of electoral votes every four years. But how many of those will the Great Lakes State have for the 2012 election?

From the Detroit News:

In yet another sign of Michigan's bruising economy, housing starts in Metro Detroit last year plummeted to their lowest level since 1983, the region's planning agency announced today.

Only 10,311 residential building permits were issued in 2006 in the seven-county metro area -- a 45 percent drop from 2005, according to the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments. That follows a 24 percent drop from 2004 to 2005.

All seven counties saw declines in building permits, led by Washtenaw County's 60 percent drop, SEMCOG said. Oakland had a 49 percent decline, Wayne County's was 43 percent and Macomb's was 36 percent.

Ouch. Things were pretty bad in the Detroit area in 1983, and it seems they're pretty bad now.

Housing starts are of course a pretty reliable figure for estimating the economic strength of a region. And when the economy stinks, people leave.

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