Housing Starts Rose Less Than Expected in March

The rate of permitting for construction of single familyrnhousing and residential construction completions were both down in March, Housingrnstarts did rise slightly.</p

The Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and UrbanrnDevelopment reported that permits for privately owned housing were at arnseasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,039,000 in March, a 5.7 percent drop fromrnthe February rate of 1,102,000 (revised from an original estimate of 1,092,000), and short of the forecast of 1,080,000. The March number was an increase of 2.9rnpercent from 1,010,000 a year earlier.</p

Single-family permits were issued at a rate of 636,000 unitsrncompared to 623,000 units the previous month. rnThis was a gain of 2.1 percent for the month and an annual increase ofrn4.1 percent.  Authorizations forrnconstruction of units in buildings of five or more units fell 16.0 percent to 378,000rnand were down 1.6 percent from the previous March.</p

On a non-adjusted basis there were 90,900 permits issued forrnprivate residential construction in March compared to 77,500 in February.  Single-family permits numbered 57,100, uprnfrom 43,500 and 31,700 multi-family units were authorized compared to 32,000 inrnFebruary.  </p

Construction was begun (housing ‘starts‘) on residential units at a seasonallyrnadjusted annual rate of 926,000.  Thisrnwas a 2.0 percent improvement over February and the estimate for that month wasrnrevised from 897,000 units to 908,000, but short of the forecast for 1,040,000. rnMarch housing starts were down 2.5 percent from the annual rate ofrn950,000 in March 2014.</p

Single-family housing starts were at a rate of 618,000rnunits, 4.4 percent above the slightly lowered number for February of 592,000rnbut down 2.7 percent from March of last year. rn Multi-family starts were at arnrate of 287,000 units, a 7.1 percent month-over-month decline.</p

On a non-adjusted basis starts in March totaled 77,400rnunits, 52,500 of which were single-family houses.  In February the respective numbers werern63,600 and 40,800.</p

Residential construction was completed (housing ‘completions‘) at a seasonallyrnadjusted annual rate of 823,000 units, a 3.9 percent decrease from 856,000rnunits in February and 5.8 percent below the estimate of 874,000 units a yearrnearlier. The February rate was also revised upward from 850,000.  </p

Single family homes were completed at an estimated rate ofrn602,000 units, up 0.8 percent from 597,000 in February.  The rate of completions for multi-familyrnunits was 211,000, a -12.1 percent change.</p

On a non-adjusted basis 63,000 units were completed duringrnthe month, a +4,400 unit change from February. rnAn estimated 46,300 of the total units were single-family.</p

At the end of the period there were an estimated 842,000rnunits (seasonally adjusted) under construction in the U.S.  Of these 363,000 were estimated to be singlernfamily houses. The number of previously issued permits for which constructionrnhad not yet started was estimated at 135,200 at the end of March.</p

In the Northeast region the rate of permitting rose 39.8rnpercent from February but was down 3.7 percent from March 2014.  Housing starts, which had plummeted by morernthan 50 percent in February, rose 114.9 percent in March but remained 18.5rnpercent below the estimated rate of starts the previous March. The rate ofrnhousing completions was unchanged from February and down 17.4 percent from arnyear earlier.</p

The Midwest saw a 4.4 percent drop in permits from Februaryrnto March and a 5.6 percent decrease from a year earlier. Housing starts rose byrn31.3 percent for the month but fell 11.9 percent on an annual basis.  Completions fell by 18.0 percent and 21.6rnpercent respectively for the two periods.</p

In the South the rate of permits dropped 14.2 percent fromrnFebruary but was 4.0 percent higher than in March 2014.  Housing starts were 3.5 percent lower than inrnFebruary but up 4.2 percent from the previous March.  Completions were 3.2 percent lower than inrnFebruary and 4.4 percent below a year earlier.</p

The rate of permitting in the West fell off from February byrn4.3 percent but was up 9.9 percent on a year-over-year basis.  There was a 19.3 percent drop in housingrnstarts from February’s rate and 2.0 percent from the previous March.  Completions were up 2.3 percent and 5.6rnpercent on a monthly and annual basis.

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