Hammering away

For their part, homebuilders kept hammering away. Builders in Oklahoma City, Edmond, Midwest City, Moore and Norman together started 3,482 houses in the first three quarters, up 27.2 percent compared with the first three quarters of 2011.

Oklahoma City permits were up 29.9 percent, Edmond's were up 46.5 percent, Midwest City's up 20 percent and Norman's were up 13.8 percent. Moore's were down 8 percent.

“Confidence is up with builders and consumer confidence seems to be strong,” said Kurt Dinnes, president of the Central Oklahoma Home Builders Association and co-owner of Sun Custom Homes.

He said builders saw “awful good results” from the recent Parade of Homes, “and not just traffic but signed contracts.”

The looming presidential election, he said, might have caused some potential buyers to postpone plans simply because of the uncertainty surrounding control of the White House and Congress — and the economy.

Dinnes, co-founder of the Taco Mayo chain and president of Taco Mayo Franchise Systems Inc., said business falls off at the restaurants in the weeks before a presidential election. He said he wouldn't be surprised to see a similar slowdown in home sales show up in the next round of monthly statistics.