REAL ESTATE

If you asked them, most people would say--correctly--that most of the new homes built in the county are going up in places like Mission Viejo and the unincorporated areas of southern Orange County.

But few might guess that the northern Orange County city of Fullerton would be third.

Builders in Fullerton received permits for 340 new apartments or condominiums and 40 houses this year through May, the Construction Industry Research Board said recently. That’s $30 million worth of buildings.

That is still small potatoes compared to the unincorporated portion of southern Orange County, where building permits were issued for 1,600 houses and 1,900 apartments or condominiums during the first five months of the year.

That means a total of $353 million worth of construction.

In Mission Viejo, builders received permits for 700 houses and 150 apartments or condos for a total of $130 million.

New houses in the northern half of the county are more expensive than in the south because of the scarcity of land. Yorba Linda builders, for instance, got only 238 permits through May, all for single-family houses.

Yet those permits will be used to build $65 million worth of houses, the third-highest total after the county and Mission Viejo.