New home and condo construction starts in South Florida remained in a veritable standstill, with home builders breaking ground on fewer than 100 homes and about two dozen condominium units during the second quarter.

Bowing under a surplus of homes for sale, soft demand and stiff competition from foreclosures, builders started construction on a mere seven new single-family homes in Miami-Dade County, down from 43 in the first quarter. They broke ground on only 27 condos, all in a single project in Homestead.

The numbers, released Tuesday from national housing research firm Metrostudy, painted a slightly less grim picture in Broward, where single family home starts rose from 17 to 78 in the second quarter. Not a single new condo entered the construction pipeline, however.

A housing start refers to new projects begun in the period and not construction that is under way or being completed.

The dramatic fall-off in new construction since the housing bubble burst has led to thousands of lost jobs in housing-related fields, contributing to the state's soaring unemployment rate. In June, it hit 10.6 percent, the highest since 1983.

Over the past year, the construction sector shed almost 19,000 jobs in the two counties, according to the state's labor department.

Housing analysts note, nonetheless, that the slowdown in building is necessary to whittle away the number of new homes available for sale and set the market on the path to recovery.

The annual pace at which new homes are being occupied is exceeding the pace of new homes being built, meaning inventory is being slowly pared back, said Brad Hunter, the West Palm Beach-based chief economist for Metrostudy.

``It's a good sign for those worried about property values. If we were still building 100 or 200 homes every quarter, that would be too many and we'd still have way too much inventory for a longer period of time,'' Hunter said.

The Case-Shiller index of home prices released Tuesday showed property values in South Florida fell by 25 percent in May compared to a year ago, but just 0.8 percent from April. Most analysts agree the steepest price declines in the region have already occured. The slowdown in price declines is partly due to a falling number of homes on the market.

In the new home sector, the number of new houses for sale or rent fell about 7 percent between the first and second quarters to 1,285 in Miami-Dade. The number remained essentially flat in Broward at 816 homes. Move-ins, which include sales and rentals, fell from 298 to 99 in Miami-Dade and 129 to 119 in Broward.

New homes sales nationally surged in June by 11 percent, the Commerce Department reported Monday, but fell in the southern region of the country, which includes Florida, by 5.3 percent.

New condo inventory remained grossly over-inflated in Miami-Dade with 10,685 empty condos waiting for residents.

In Broward, 1,022 new units were empty. Sales are picking up, though. Metrostudy reported closings were up by 57 percent in Miami-Dade county from the first quarter to 2,092 closings. There were 396 closings in Broward, compared to 176 in the previous quarter.

Craig Perry, president of Centerline Homes in Coral Springs, said the near cessation of new construction was, in part, due to the inability of home builders to get financing for projects.

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