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The forecast for single-home construction this year is grim. Some predict the fewest new home sales since the mid 1960s. Home prices and new home inventory have dropped in postrecession years for the first time since World War II.

But of Beaverton is optimistic.

After building nearly 275 homes in 2010, Arbor plans to approach 350 this year, near the company’s annual average through its 22-year history.

“We truly feel that we’ve hit bottom with all of this and are starting to get a better perspective of what’s going to happen moving forward,” said Brad Golik, a spokesman for Arbor, the area’s largest home builder based locally. “We aren’t going to build 800 homes, which is our record for a year, but there are definitely some opportunities out there.”

The biggest impetus, for the company’s increased production, according to Golik, is because of greater prospects for new jobs near some of the company’s property. He said workers are starting to return to full-time employment and receive bonuses – actions that can influence home-buying decisions.

“Job creation is a factor in this as well, due to the new Intel (fabrication) plant that is expected to bring a lot of new jobs to the area,” he said. “Our niche has always been the Sunset Corridor, so we believe that if we can get some projects moving now we can meet that demand.”

The new plant at Intel’s Hillsboro campus is expected to lead to the creation of 1,000 permanent high-tech jobs with an average annual salary of $120,000, according to Intel. Golik said Arbor has a good relationship with Intel and hopes to help meet housing demand.

Another reason Arbor is building more homes this year is because it acquired several bank-owned sites over the last few years. Two are Indigo Ridge at Cooper Mountain in unincorporated Washington County and Ridge Crest in Happy Valley.

“We have good relationships with a few of the banks so we’ve acquired sites from them as well as signing on to be the builder for the bank to build out other bank-owned developments,” he said.

While other builders are moving forward with new developments, none are doing so at the same rate as Arbor. Randy Sebastian, president of Renaissance Homes, plans to build 150 homes this year, significantly fewer than the 300-350 average of years past. He said the production decrease allows his company to be profitable and not excessively leveraged.

Rudy Kadlub, CEO of Costa Pacific Communities, in September 2010 announced that his company was planning on turning out 35 homes in the Villebois community in Wilsonville by early 2011. But after a dismal autumn, he now says there is no timeline to finish the homes.

“We have about six homes for sale right now and we aren’t going to start building new homes until we sell about half of those,” Kadlub said. “We still have the land, and we think things will get better, but after (the) fall we aren’t going to go forward with them now.”

Despite poor housing numbers through the fall and into winter, Golik said Arbor is confident moving forward.

“We have 21 different neighborhoods and we plan to turn out three next year, starting with Trillium Woods in Lake Oswego in January,” Golik said. “Things aren’t great, but they are going to get better.”