The nations economy may have been in a recession for much of the past year, but you wouldnt know it by looking at the number of new homes being built. Housing starts in November were up 8 percent from October and 6 percent from the November 2000 rate of nearly 1.6 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The figures show 1.26 million single family housing starts in November, a 3 percent increase from October and a 5 percent jump from November 2000. Even though the numbers are not quite as strong locally, builders and real estate professionals are not complaining too much. While Warren County continued its slight yearly decline thats been the trend over the past couple of years, the citys number of permits for single family homes was up in 2001. If you ask some people and they pay attention to the TV and they think (the situation is) terrible, but you look at reality, said Luke Williams, who has the vantage point of being both a builder and seller of homes. Williams has his own building company and also is a real estate broker with First Choice Realty. That reality, says brother John Williams, who also works for the company, is that people are still buying and building homes. As of Friday, there were 520 homes offered on the Multiple Listing Service, 96 of which were new homes or homes still under construction for sale. The service, which is used by most area real estate professionals to keep tabs on available housing in the region, indicated an average price of $149,071 with a price range of $14,900 to $1.35 million. Available housing is down from the 700 or 800 homes that have usually been available over the past several years an indication of a transition to more of a sellers market, Luke Williams said. It has been a buyers market for the past four or five years; buyers have had the advantage because weve had high inventory, he said. Inventorys probably down, which is a little bit surprising. Still, his company, which specializes in building and selling to first-time home buyers, doesnt plan to change its plans. Our goal is to build 50 homes this year in the price range of lower-to-middle-priced housing, John Williams said. Thats in the $90,000 to $110,000 range; the $100,000 range seems to be a good break point for first-time buyers. The company caters to first-time home buyers and is building in Lost River Cove and the Calloway Gardens segment of the Hartland Development. Almost anybody that can afford to rent can afford to buy a home in a lower- to middle-income range, he said. Those involved in building mid- to upper-income housing are not as optimistic. Were not bidding much right now, said Bob Dillard, owner of Contracting Unlimited. Its been slow and its still pretty slow on houses from $300,000 and up; and even though we have some projects in the $150,000 to $200,000 range, business is down. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and media pessimism about the economy dont help, Dillard said. Theres some uncertainty out there because of the attacks, and, then, when everybodys in a recession, they believe what they read and hear. The bleaker the picture that you paint, the bleaker people seem to go with it. The inventory may be down, but the number of permits issued by the city of Bowling Green is up. There were 305 permits filed for single family homes, up from 255 during the previous year. The number of building permits for new homes outside the city declined roughly 20 percent in 2001, said Warren County Building Inspector Craig Hunt. There were 299 permits issued during the just-completed year, compared with 370 a year ago. That continued the downward trend from 1999, when the county had issued 456 permits, a 19 percent decline. The average cost of new homes as listed on permit applications in Bowling Green was $115,000, compared to $111,000 in the county. Still, Hunt is optimistic. The moderate to slow decline has continued for us, true; with lower interest rates and lower building material costs, 2002 should be a very good year for builders, he said. What happens in 2002s housing market could likely depend on which direction interest rates go and employment opportunities. With unemployment rates creeping up, there may be concern that the interest rates could head the same direction. A lot of people who may have been riding the fence on doing something may move to buy if they see the interest rates going up, John Williams said. Also, another change would be if some of these new factories come in here that might bring 300 or 400 more people here; that could impact the supply. Its all about that supply and demand. Jobs are the key, Dillard said. If we could get more jobs and more industry, that would mean people coming in and when they have to get housing here, it would eat into some of whats available on the market, he said. As far as predicting his own companys success or lack thereof in 2002, Dillard said he could not. Were hoping its going to be a good year, he said. But I dont have any indication today, being Jan. 4, that its going to be. But thats the funny thing about this business its feast or famine. You may not have anything this Friday and get bids on three houses next week.