Housing Starts Rise Less than Expected as Multi-family Drags

Permits for construction of privately-ownedrnhousing dipped slightly in August, down 1.0 percent to a seasonally adjustedrnannual rate of 803,000 units.  Thernpreviously reported July rate was revised downward from 812,000 to 811,000.  The August permitting rate was 24.5 percentrnabove the 645,000 estimate for August 2011.</p

Single family permits were issued at arnrate of 512,000, a 0.2 percent increase from the July figures of 511,000 whichrnwas downgraded from the 513,000 units previously announced.  Permits for construction in buildings withrnfive or more units were issued at a rate of 263,000 compared to 271,000 inrnJuly.</p

Housing starts increased by 2.3 percentrnto an adjusted rate of 750,000.  The Julyrnestimate was revised downward from 746,000 to 733,000.  The August number is 29.1 percent higher thanrnthe rate one year earlier, estimated at 581,000.</p

Single family starts increased 5.5rnpercent to 535,000 compared to the upwardly revised (from 502,000) July figurernof 507,000.  The start rate for units inrnbuildings with five or more units was 208,000 compared to 214,000 in July.</p

Housing was completed at a rate ofrn689,000 units, a 0.7 percent increase from July and11.7 percent higher than thern617,000 completed in one year earlier. rnThe July completion rate was revised from 668,000 to 684,000.</p

At the end of July permits werernoutstanding for the construction 46,100 single family units and 46,500 for unitsrnin multi-family buildings.  There werern492,000 units under construction, 266,000 of which were single family houses.  </p

Permitting was down 7.1 percent in thernNortheast and 6.4 percent in the West and increased 7.9 percent in thernMidwest.  There was no change in thernSouth.  Starts were also down in thernNortheast and West, 12.6 percent and 4.3 percent respectively.  Housing starts rose 20.0 percent in thernMidwest and 3.7 percent in the South.  </p

Building Permits
</p

ChartManager.loadChart(‘permitschart’, ‘HousingPermitsChart’);

</p

Housing Starts</p

ChartManager.loadChart(‘housingchart’, ‘HousingChart’);

</p

All Content Copyright © 2003 – 2009 Brown House Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.nReproduction in any form without permission of MortgageNewsDaily.com is prohibited.