BUBBLE HASN'T POPPED YET IN RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE MARKET.

Byline: GREGORY J. WILCOX

With half of 2005 in the rearview mirror, the residential real estate market looks a lot like it did last year, and the year before that, and the year before that and ... well, you get the idea.

The statewide sales record, set last year, is in jeopardy. Price records continue to tumble almost on a regular basis, though the increases are not as big as they used to be. New construction continues at a robust pace.

Evidence abounds in the statistics. And e-mail traffic from the bubble- bursting proponents, at a high volume this time last year, is now a trickle.

For example:

--Through June, sales in Los Angeles County are 8 percent ahead of last year's brisk pace, according to the California Association of Realtors.

--Statewide sales are 3.6 percent ahead of the year-ago level.

--New home construction, while not exactly booming in Los Angeles, is ahead of last year's pace, which was the strongest since 1989.

The market might not look so rosy this time next year, though.

``I think we're going to see, 12 months from now, slower conditions,'' said Leslie Appleton-Young, the association's vice president and chief economist.

Some market watchers have said for nearly two years that prices were at a unsustainable level. They seem a lot closer to that point now than then.

Even so, the new home market continues to get action.

In the year's first six months, single-family home construction is 1.9 percent ahead of last year's pace, according to a report out late last week from the California Building Industry Association.

Toss apartment and condominium construction into the mix and activity is running 0.3 percent ahead of a year ago, the best since 1989.

It's a different dynamic today, however. As the booming '80s drew to a close, builders put up homes at a rapid pace around the San Fernando Valley, and advertisements claiming it was possible to own a new home for what you paid to rent an apartment were common.

Not so today in this area.

New construction activity has migrated to where land is available.

Since January, the Inland Empire and Sacramento area have seen most of the single-family construction action.

Condo and apartment starts were strongest in Los Angeles County.

In a statement accompanying the numbers, Alan Nevin, chief economist at the building association, said the brisk pace of new construction means the real estate market still has some steam.

``It is a positive indication of the confidence of the home-buying public in the economy and future of the Golden State. It is also gratifying to note that the construction industry is right on target to meet or beat their exceptional performance of 2004,'' he said.

Gregory J. Wilcox, [phone]

greg.wilcox(at)dailynews.com