Florida fared worse than the rest of the country in building homes last year.

While construction picked up nationally from 2009, in Florida builders started 31,600 homes and multifamily units in 2010 - the lowest in more than 20 years. In 2007, builders broke ground on more than 200,000 units in the Sunshine State.

Paul Thompson, head of the Florida Home Builders Association, said he's glad 2010 has passed. The biggest issue facing home builders is financing.

"It's the worst in memory," he said. "The banks are not lending to the creditworthy customers. I don't remember a worse time."

Nationally, builders broke ground on 587,600 homes in 2010, slightly more than the 554,000 in 2009. Those are the two worst years since 1959.

Builders start about 1 million houses a year in a robust economy. They built twice as many at the height of the housing boom in 2005. Experts attribute the few starts to the weak economy, the foreclosure crisis, high unemployment and lack of financing available to home buyers.

But some Florida builders, Thompson said, are thriving by building smaller houses with lower prices to attract a bigger pool of buyers, adding: "There are some successes out there."

Neal Communities, a Lakewood Ranch builder, signed 275 contracts and secured 295 building permits in 2010 - its best year since 2004.

In 2005, its average new house cost $527,000 and was about 2,400 square feet. The figures dropped to $260,000 and 1,700 square feet in 2010.

"We changed our product," president Pat Neal said. "We changed the system. We had a very good year."

The 40-year builder also said the company owns all of its land and did not have to make payments on the property during this housing downturn. That, along with local builders closing their doors, will help the company grow even more in 2011, he added.

Although 2010 was bad, Thompson expects new construction to increase to about 47,700 starts by the end of 2011 in Florida. The association has lost more than half - about 2,500 - of its builder members in the past three years. Others, he said, have taken on home remodeling and weatherization business in order to stay afloat.

The flat housing market weighs on the economic recovery. Every home built creates, on average, the equivalent of three jobs a year and produces about $90,000 in taxes, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

Information from Times wires was used in this report. Mark Puente can be reached at mpuente@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8459.