No Big Spring Bounce for Housing Starts

Two of the three measures of residentialrnconstruction activity used by the Census Bureau fell slightly in March.  Fewer permits were issued and fewer homesrnreached completion than in February while housing starts rose slightly.</p

The Bureau and the U.S. Department ofrnHousing and Urban Development report that residential building permits were issuedrnin March at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 990,000 units.  This is 2.4 percent below the revisedrnFebruary rate of 1,014,000 units and 11.2 percent higher than the rate ofrn890,000 units issued in March 2013.</p

Permits for single family houses werernissued at a rate of 592,000, 0.5 percent above the February estimate ofrn589,000.  Permits for construction ofrnunits in buildings with five or more units were at the rate of 370,000 unitsrncompared to 402,000 in February.</p

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis anrnestimated there were 83,000 permits issued compared to 70,500 in February.  Single-family permits accounted for 50,800 ofrnthe total compared to 41,200 the previous month.</p

Housing starts were up 2.8 percent to arnseasonally adjusted annual rate of 946,000 units from a revised February estimaternof 920,000 units.   This number is 5.9rnpercent below starts a year earlier which were at a rate of 1,005,000rnunits.  Single-family starts were at arnrate of 635,000, up 6.0 percent month over month and starts in multifamilyrnunits were at a rate of 292,000 compared to 311,000 in February.</p

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On an unadjusted basis there were 79,100rnhousing starts of which 54,000 were single family.  In February the corresponding numbers werern63,300 and 41,200.</p

Housing completions were at a rate of 872,000,rn0.2 percent below February’s rate of 874,000 and 7.7 percent higher than a yearrnearlier when completions were running at 810,000 units.  Single family units were completed at arn602,000 pace, down 3.8 percent and multifamily completions rose 7.9 percent torna rate of 258,000.</p

Completions were estimated to numberrn67,500 on an unadjusted basis compared to 60,400 the previous month.  Single-family units accounted for 46,900 andrn44,000 of those totals respectively.</p

Permitting rose 33.3 percent in thernNortheast compared to February and 36.0 percent from March 2013 Housing startsrnalso jumped, up 30.7 percent for the month and 22.3 percent for the year.  Unit completions were unchanged from Februaryrnand down 33.3 percent on an annual basis.</p

In the Midwest permits were up 26.0rnpercent month-over-month and 18.7 percent year-over-year.  Housing starts rose 65.5 percent fromrnFebruary and were 2.9 percent above the same period in 2013.  There were 14.1 percent fewer completionsrnthan in the previous month but 15.5 percent more than a year earlier.</p

There was a 17.1 percent decrease in thernrate of permits issued in the South in March and permits were down 1.1 percentrnfrom a year earlier.  Housing starts fellrn9.1 percent and 13.9 percent for the two respective periods.  Completions increased 1.3 percent fromrnFebruary and were up 26.7 percent from a year earlier.</p

The rate of permitting in the West wasrnunchanged from a month earlier but was 21.4 percent higher than in March 2013.rnStarts were down 4.3 percent and 3.2 percent and completions rose 7.4 percentrnfrom February but were down 10.2 percent year-over-year.</p

At the end of the reporting period therernwere 108,000 permits outstanding for which construction had not yet startedrncompared to 105,500 in February.  There werern709,300 units under construction.

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