With the wheels turning again on new home building in San Diego, the economic engine of residential construction is helping pull much of the local work force back on track to prosperity.

New homes mean new jobs. The initial employment from building 1,000 single-family homes is 2,448 full-time jobs in construction and related industries, amounting to $79.4 million in wages. The construction of 1,000 multifamily units generates 1,030 kindred full-time jobs and $33.5 million in wages, the National Association of Home Builders reports, based on metropolitan averages.

Through the first 11 months of 2002, San Diego logged 8,014 new residential building permits for single-family houses and 5,273 new multifamily permits.

With 1,358 member companies employing a total work force of 110,000, the Building Industry Association of San Diego tracks the new home construction cascade to the San Diegans installing, producing and transporting lumber, concrete, insulation, carpeting and cabinets, along with the kitchen sink and all the other plumbing.

And then come all the things that are added upon move-in: a fence, a patio, landscaping, furniture and appliances. The NAHB says in the first year after purchase, the average new home owner spends about $9,000: $3,194 in property alterations, $3,632 on furnishings, and $2,070 on appliances.

Among the largest local sources for building products, lumber and hardware is Dixieline, which began in San Diego in 1913. Its 10 San Diego County stores had $230 million in gross sales last year, and half of that was to local contractors, says Dick Yoder, Dixieline’s sales manager for contractor sales.

“We bid to the contractors doing the work, and we do a percentage of their business,” Yoder says. “We have some who buy everything from us.”

The lumber alone for a standard wooden fence at $6.50 a linear foot along the 170 feet of an average new home lot is $1,140. Yoder says business has picked up every year over the last three years with the increase in new construction.

European Natural Stone is another local business with customers both before and after a new home sale. Company President Kathy Sciarrino says 30 percent of its $14 million annual sales is in supplying and installing counter tops for new home builders, 20 percent through big box home improvement stores, and 50 percent in retail sales from its Santee headquarters.

Now, the company’s performance in supplying local new home developments is paying off nationwide for European, which just signed a national contract with KB Home to provide the company’s proprietary line of modular counter tops.

“What our company has been doing the last three or four years is developing products that are affordable to the consumer,” says Sciarrino. “For a lot of people, granite is just too expensive in entry-level homes. So we put together a product line that costs $2,500, not $5,000.”

For some new homes, granite counter tops are standard; for others it’s an upgrade option offered by the builder; and for some, it’s a final luxury installed after the sale, sometimes as a do-it-yourself project.

“We’re at the end of the cycle. They (new home owners) are always over their budget by the time they get to us.” Sciarrino says the company’s ability to provide granite at a lower price has fed granite’s increasing popularity with home owners.

She and her husband, Pet,e began the company in 1978. Now, four of their sons are in the business — along with 150 other employees and a factory in China.

— Terence J. Burke