Housing Starts Rise, Permits at Four-and-half Year High

Housing permits were issued in February atrna seasonally adjusted annual rate of 946,000, an increase of 4.6 percent fromrnJanuary and 33.8 percent higher than the 707,000 permitting pace in Februaryrn2012.   The January figure however represented arnsubstantial downward revision from the 925,000 unit rate originally reported torn904,000, largely due to an earlier overestimate of multi-family permits. </p

Permitsrnfor single family housing were issued at an annual rate of 600,000, up 2.7rnpercent from the January estimate of 584,000 and 25.5 percent higher than inrnFebruary 2012.  Permits in buildings withrnfive or more units were issued at a rate of 316,000 units compared to 294,000rnunits revised from 311,000 units, in January.</p

Building Permits
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Construction was begun on privately-ownedrnhousing units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 917,000, 0.8 percentrnabove the revised January estimate of 910,000 and 27.7 percent above the raternone year earlier of 718,000.  The Januaryrnnumber is a substantial improvement over the 890,000 units originally reported.</p

Single family housing starts were at a rate ofrn618,000 compared to 615,000 the previous month and 470,000 units the yearrnbefore.   There were 285,000 starts in multi-familyrnbuildings compared to 283,000 in January and 240,000 in February 2012.</p

Housing Starts</p

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Housing units were completed at anrnannual rate of 711,000 and single family units at a rate of 574,000 compared torn715,000 and 554,000 in January.  Therernwere 575,000 units under construction at the end of the reporting period,rn288,000 of which were single family units and 96,000 permits for whichrnconstruction had not yet begun.  Almostrn48,000 of these permits were for units in multi-unit buildings.</p

Activity was mixed on a regionalrnbasis.  In the Northeast permits wererndown 18.2 percent from the previous month and 1.2 percent below February 2012.  Housing starts were up 18.4 percentrnmonth-over-month and 56.1 percent year-over-year.  Units completions were 1.4 percent higherrnthan in January but 7.6 percent below the pace a year earlier.</p

The Midwest region saw a 1.4 percentrnincrease in permits issued compared to January and 21.8 percent from Februaryrn2012.  Housing starts were up 37.3rnpercent and 33.3 percent respectively and completions rose 32.1 percent andrn14.4 percent.</p

Permitting was up 9.9 percent on arnmonthly basis in the South and 35.2 percent annually.  Housing starts were down 5.7 percent fromrnJanuary but up 10.5 percent from a year earlier.  Housing completions fell 7.2 percent form arnmonth earlier but were 23.3 percent higher than the same month in 2012.</p

In the West permitting increased 6.8rnpercent from January and was 51.6 percent higher than in the previous yearrnwhile housing starts lagged the January pace by 7.2 percent but were up 62.5rnpercent on an annual basis.  Completionsrnwere down 2 percent from January but were 57.5 percent above the rate inrnFebruary 2012.  </p

The February report on new residentialrnconstruction was released this morning by the U.S. Census Bureau and thernDepartment of Housing and Urban Developmen.</p<prnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrnrn

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