Sizable Increases in Permits and Starts Noted in September

Permits</afor new single family houses jumped 11.6 percent in September.  The seasonally adjusted annual rate rose fromrna revised August estimate of 801,000 to 894,000 in September and the Augustrnnumber was an upward revision from the 801,000 originally reported.   The September total was 45.1 percent abovernthe 616,000 rate reported in September 2011.</p

Housing starts also increased sharply torna seasonally adjusted annual rate of 872,000 units.  This is a 15.0 percent increase from August andrnstarts for that month were revised upward to 758,000 units from an originalrnestimate of 750,000.  The Septemberrnestimate is 13.8 percent above the rate in September 2011 of 647,000.</p

Single-family starts increased torn603,000 from 543,000 in August.  The Augustrnfigure was also a substantial upward revision from the 535,000 units originallyrnreported.  An estimated 260,000 unitsrnwere started in multi-family buildings, up from 208,000 in August.</p

Housing completions increased onlyrnmodestly month-over-month, up 0.4 percent to 683,000 from 680,000.  The current figure is a 13.8 percent increasernover a year earlier.  Single familyrncompletions were at a rate of 524,000, up 8.5 percent from August andrnmulti-family units were completed at the rate of 145,000.</p

On a regional basis permits increasedrnacross the board and housing starts were up in every region except thernNortheast.   Housing completionsrnincreased in two of the four regions. </p

In the Northeast permitting increased byrn6.0 percent from 83,000 in August to a rate of 88,000 in September, 31.3rnpercent higher than one year ago. rnHousing starts were at a rate of 75,000 units, down from 79,000 inrnAugust but 12.2 percent higher year-over-year. rnHousing completions went from a rate of 61,000 to 80,000, an increase ofrn31.1 percent.</p

The Midwest saw permits increase torn147,000 from 123,000 in August, an increase of 19.5 percent and 33.6 percentrnabove a year earlier.  Housing startsrnwere at a seasonally adjusted rate of 143,000, 6.7 percent higher than Augustrnand 47.4 percent higher than a year previous. rnCompletions were at the rate of 115,000, down 3.4 percent from a monthrnearlier but up 26.4 percent year-over year.</p

In the South permits were issued at anrnannual rate of 452,000 compared to 409,000 in August (+10.5 percent) and 47.2rnpercent higher than in September 2011. rnHousing starts were up 19.9 percent from August and 19.1 percent from arnyear earlier to 315,000.  Completions rosern4.2 percent from August and 15.7 percent from September 2011 to a rate ofrn346,000. </p

The West saw an 11.3 percent increase inrnthe rate of permitting to 207,000 permits from 186,000 in August and a 56.8rnpercent improvement over one year earlier. rnHousing starts were at a rate of 203,000 compared to 169,000 in August,rna 20.1 percent improvement.  Completionsrnwere down 15.5 percent from August to 142,000.</p

At the end of September there werern90,800 permits that had been issued but on which work had not yet been started.  More than half (46,600) were for multi-familyrnunits.  

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