Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator instructions) And our first question comes from Dan Oppenheim from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Dan Oppenheim – Credit Suisse
Thank you very much. I was wondering – it's good to hear your thoughts in terms of the development through ’09 on the residential side. Can you talk a little bit of what you’re thinking on the commercial side? And then also, how would your plans – for this change, if you were to think about 2010 being another tough year in terms of just capacity or in terms of (inaudible)?
Jim Metcalf
Our projections for 2009 on the commercial side are around 14% for new non-res. That number probably could go down as the year unfolds. What we really do on commercials, we look at job growth and everyone knows where the job's are headed right now. So on 2010, housing starts – we're anticipating an up-tick on housing starts in 2010. As Rick has mentioned, we're at historic low levels right now. We still think that commercials going to be fairly weak on 2010.
Dan Oppenheim – Credit Suisse
Great. Then I guess the other question was in terms of the – if you would to look at the – if you were to change your view in terms of the up-tick in 2010, would you start to think differently about capacity?
Jim Metcalf
About capacity?
Dan Oppenheim – Credit Suisse
Right. In terms of overall selling down capacity, overall if you think it's going to last long?
Jim Metcalf
We have a plan, as I mentioned in my prepared comments, we look at the market every month. Housing starts have about three and a half month leading indicator on wallboard opportunity. So what you're seeing now is what the opportunity for wallboard would be in three and a half months. So we really track starts – one other thing we do, we network with our customers and get their projections as well. Just as a metric, a 100,000 housing starts upper down is about 800 million feet of total wallboard opportunity for the industry. So you can put your number on what you think housing is going to be next year and it's about 800 million feet of demand.
Next question.
Operator
Our next question comes from Michael Rehaut from J.P. Morgan.
Michael Rehaut – J.P. Morgan
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