Building Permits Surge is All Multi-Family

The Census Bureau and the Department of Housing andrnUrban Development are still playing catch-up from the government shutdown thatrnsquashed data reports through much of October. rnToday they issued a combined September-October report on permits authorizedrnfor residential construction but have delayed the information on housing startsrnand housing completions that is usually a part of their residentialrnconstruction summary until December 18.</p

Permits for residential construction issued inrnSeptember were at a seasonally adjusted rate of 974,000, a 5.2 percent increasernfrom the 926,000 permits reported in August. rnThe August number was revised upward from the 918,000 permits originallyrnreported.   </p

Permits in October were stronger still, at arnseasonally adjusted rate of 1,034,000, an increase of 6.2 percent overrnSeptember and 13.9 percent above the 908,000 permits issued in October 2012.  </p

Single family permits in September were at a rate of<b615,000 compared to 627,000 in August. rnSingle family permits in October were at a rate of 620,000, an increasernof 0.8 percent.  October’s number was 8.8rnpercent higher than that of a year earlier. Multifamily permitting accounted for all of the gains, with September and October at rates of 359,000  3414,000 unitsrnrespectively.  October represents a whopping 24 percent increase from a yearrnearlier.</p

October Permits in the Northeast were unchanged fromrnSeptember at 101,000 and up 23.2 percent from October 2012.  In the Midwest permits dropped 9.6 percentrnfrom 177,000 in September to 160,000 in October and were 2.6 percent above thernOctober 2012 number.  Permitting in thernSouth took big jumps in both September and October with 501,000 and 548,000 permitsrnissued in the two months respectively, up from 423,000 in August.  The October number was a 14.4 percentrnincrease from a year earlier. The West saw 328,000 new permits in September andrn332,000 in October.  The latter was arn17.8 percent increase from the previous year.

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