Feb. 4--TAMPA -- While many Tampa Bay area home builders have put down their hammers, some continue to start construction on new homes -- just not very many of them.

Area builders started construction on 932 single-family homes in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to Houston-based Metrostudy, which tracks new home construction, That's a 32.9 percent decrease from last year and the first time in at least 23 years that housing starts fell below 1,000 in a quarter.

Why are builders building any homes in this economy? If they want to stay in business, they say they have to keep building at least some homes.

"Builders have reduced their inventory tremendously, and in some case builders don't have any inventory," said Joseph Narkiewicz, executive vice president of the Tampa Bay Builders Association. "Even though there many still be discouraging signs in the economy, there's still demand prevalent in the marketplace."

Here's a look at the area's top 10 subdivisions where builders started new homes in the past year, according to Metrostudy. The Tampa division tracks construction in Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas, Citrus and Hernando counties.

K-Bar Ranch (Hillsborough), 165

FishHawk Ranch (Hillsborough), 146

South Fork (Hillsborough),125

Oak Creek (Hillsborough),113

Cypress Creek (Hillsborough), 109

Concord Station (Pasco), 103

Ayersworth Glen (Hillsborough), 100

Summerfield Crossing (Hillsborough), 89

Trillium (Hernando), 87

Ventura Bay (Hillsborough), 74

Part of the reason home starts are down is many builders have been unable to sell the homes they've already built. There were 2,617 empty new homes sitting on the market in the fourth quarter, compared with 3,496 homes during the same period last year. Metrostudy's Tony Polito said it would take about four months to sell those homes at the current sales pace.

Aside from empty homes, builders are dealing with empty home sites. Some builders overprepared for the housing boom and prepped too many lots for construction. There are 30,640 empty lots in the five-county area, Metrostudy said. That's a 6 1/2-year supply of lot inventory.

Reporter Shannon Behnken can be reached at (813) 259-7804.

To see more of the Tampa Tribune or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.tampatrib.com. Copyright © 2009, Tampa Tribune, Fla. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

Copyright 2009 Tampa Tribune