B of A said 1984 was good for California housing.

According to Bank of America’s monthly “California Housing Report,� 204,000 houses, apartments, and other attached dwellings were built during 1984. This was a 30% increase over 1983 and the largest number built since 1978. Michael Smith-Heimer and Michael Salkin, economists for the San Francisco-based bank and authors of the report, said the mix of construction during 1984 was different from averages over the past decade. Multifamily construction increased 62%, accounting for almost half of all starts, while single-family construction increased only 10.6%. Not since 1973 has single-family housing construction dropped to this low a level of total construction, they said.