The Census Department today published the delayed survey on September and October residential construction permits. The data on housing starts was further delayed until December 18th.
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However, almost all of this growth is attributable to apartment-building permits in the South region. See charts.
Single-family home permits were essentially flat over September and October with a drop of 1.9% being followed by a gain of 0.8%.
On a rolling three-month view, single-home permits are up 0.4% in August-October 2013 compared with the same months in 2012. The corresponding growth in multi-unit structures was 6.9%, for an overall total growth in permits of 2.7%.
We hope to analyze the detailed permits data, by metro-area to see where the multi-unit permit issuance might be concentrated. As we have seen with Manhattan tower-blocks in the past, wo or three high-rise condominiums in one month can give a large kick to the annualized, national rate.
| U.S. Residential Construction: Housing Permits, Nationally Housing Units, Annualized Rate (Thousands) Seasonally Adjusted |
||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Structure Type | Monthly Level (SA) | Monthly % Change | Year/Year % Change | |||||||
| Oct. 2012 |
Aug. 2013 |
Sep. 2013 |
Oct. 2013 |
Aug. 2013 |
Sep. 2013 |
Oct. 2013 |
Aug. 2013 |
Sep. 2013 |
Oct. 2013 |
|
| All Types | 908 | 926 | 974 | 1,034 | -2.9 | 5.2 | 6.2 | 12.0 | 5.8 | 13.9 |
| Single Family Homes | 570 | 627 | 615 | 620 | 3.0 | -1.9 | 0.8 | 20.6 | 10.0 | 8.8 |
| Multi-Unit Buildings | 338 | 299 | 359 | 414 | -13.3 | 20.1 | 15.3 | -2.6 | -0.8 | 22.5 |