Multifamily Construction Buoys Housing Data

The pace of residential constructionrnwas notably mixed across all three Census Bureau measures in July, with thernissuance of permits, housing starts, and housing completions allrnincreasing for multi-family construction enough to offset the decline in the same three measures for single-family construction.</p

The construction data released by thernBureau jointly with the Department of Housing and Urban Developmentrnshowed housing starts up by 5.9 percent to a seasonally adjustedrnannual rate of 896,000 units. This was an increase of 20.9 percentrncompared to the July 2012 rate of 741,000. The June rate,rnoriginally reported at 836,000 was revised upward in the currentrnreport to 846,000 units. </p

Single family housing starts decreasedrn2.2 percent to 591,000 units from an upwardly revised (from 591,000)rnJune estimate of 604,000 but starts in units with five or more units<bjumped 25.5 percent to 290,000 units. Single family starts were 15.4rnpercent higher than a year earlier.</p

Permits for residential constructionrnincreased by 2.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted rate of 943,000rnunits from the revised rate (down 10,000 units) of 918,000 units inrnJune. The July rate was an increase of 12.4 percent from 839,000rnunits in July 2012.</p

Single family permits fell 1.9 percentrnto 613,000 from a slightly upwardly revised June figure of 625,000. Multifamily permits were issued at a rate of 303,000, arnmonth-over-month jump of 13.5 percent.</p

Housing completions were at an annualrnrate of 774,000, 1.8 percent above the upwardly revised June estimaternof 760,000, originally reported as 755,000, and 15.0 percent higherrnthan in July 2012 when 673,000 units were completed. Single familyrncompletions rose 5.9 percent to 571,000 units while completions ofrnunits in buildings with five or more units fell by 5.8 percent torn195,000.</p

At the end of the reporting periodrnthere were 101,600 permits outstanding for which construction had notrnyet started, slightly over half of which were for single-familyrndwellings. As seems to be the usual pattern, more than half of thatrnpending construction is located in the South. There were 636,000rnunits under construction at the end of July, 315,000 of which werernsingle family units. </p

On a regional basis, permits were uprn1.0 percent in the Northeast compared to June and 17,8 percentrncompared to one year earlier. Housing starts were up 40.2 percentrnand 30.7 percent respectively. Housing completions, while 15,7rnpercent higher than in June were down 11.0 percent on an annualrnbasis.</p

In the Midwest permits rose 2.8 percentrnmonth-over-month and 26.3 percent year-over-year. There were 25.4rnpercent more housing starts than in June and an increase of 36.2rnpercent from a year earlier. Completions rose 8.6 percent from Junernbut were down 6.0 percent on an annual basis.</p

Permits in the South were up 1.1rnpercent from June and 8.4 percent from June 2012 while starts fellrn7.0 percent from June but were 14.2 percent higher on an annualrnbasis. Completions decreased by 3.6 percent but remained 20.6rnpercent above July 2012 levels.</p

The West saw a 7.1 percent increase inrnpermitting from June to July and 10.3 percent compared to a yearrnearlier. Increases in housing starts for the two periods were 7.2rnpercent and 19.4 percent respectively and completions were up 3.8rnpercent and 40.1 percent.

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