Area home builders are hoping for a better 2008, after a slowdown that continued last year. "I would say that we are going through a normalization of the market" in the past few years, said Vicki Markussen, executive officer of the La Crosse Area Builders Associa-tion.

The number of building permits issued for single-family homes in La Crosse County rose from 311 in 2000 to 356 in 2003, Markussen said, then began declining. A total of 241 permits were issued in 2007, down from 271 in 2006.

"The market can only stay at that pace for so long," Markussen said of the construction activity in the first few years of the decade. "Then we see it go back to normal. And we'll see it pick back up, too."

Markussen predicted home building will pick up this summer and fall. "Mort-gage rates continue to be fantastic," she said. "And I think consumer confidence is starting to pick up a little bit."

The slowdown in home construction has been more pronounced in other parts of the nation, especially the East and West coasts and the South, Markussen said.