PLANO - Across North Texas, few feel the economic hit more than those in the housing industry.

Many former boomtowns are now seeing a bust.

It's a startling trend for towns used to growth: fewer and fewer new homes are being built in North Texas.

In some places, the growth isn't just down, it has nearly vanished.

Across North Texas, the chorus of home construction has largely been silenced.

Van Alstyne was emerging into the next boomtown.

For three months this summer, not a single new home permit was reissued.

Billy Plake is one of a few people living on his street, in a subdivision never finished.

"When we moved in, it was growing really fast. In the last year or so, it has pretty much died out," he said.

Across North Texas suburbs, numbers show home construction is way down.

Celina saw new home permits drop 66 percent this year. Frisco saw a drop of 33 percent, Allen 36 percent, Flower Mound 31 percent.

Demand for Tim Jackson $1 million-plus homes in Fairview has sunk.

Like many builders, he won't build, unless the buyer and the financing are already lined up.

"I think a lot of builders have pulled their wings in. They are just waiting for something good to happen, whether it be the election, or the turn of the year or something good in the economy to happen," he said.

With empty subdivisions, there is worry that empty lots will become neglected or dumped to more unscrupulous builders.

Speculative homes are a thing of the past. Many builders have abandoned the philosophy of build first, sell later, now knowing there is no guarantee the home will sell.

E-mail jbetz@wfaa.com.