A month-over-month gain was reported for building permits and completed construction, though activity has diminished compared to a year ago.
Permits were issued on 107,800 U.S.
privately owned housing units during the month of May, climbing from 99,700 during the previous month.
But permits were down from a year prior, when there were 111,900 permits issued on single-family, two-to-four unit and multifamily
properties.
The Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly reported the data Friday.
Last month’s activity brought the seasonally adjusted annual
rate of permits to 1.138 million, up a percent from April but 10 percent slower than in May 2015.
Single-family permits saw a 2 percent month-over-month loss in May 2016, while multifamily activity climbed 7 percent.
In the West, total permits were down 15 percent to a seasonally adjusted 316,000 annual rate.
But the annual rate of permits in the South dropped 1 percent to 550,000, while it fell 8 percent in the Northeast to 95,000 and declined 9 percent in the Midwest to 177,000.
As of May 31, 2016, there were a seasonally adjusted 141,000 U.S. housing units authorized but not started.
The report indicated that construction on new housing units was started at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.164 million. The rate slipped less than a percent from a month earlier but rose 10 percent from a year earlier.
“Despite May’s relatively flat report, our builders are telling us that the market is improving and consumers are more ready and willing to make a home purchase,” National Association of Home Builders Chairman Ed Brady said in a written statement.
Brady’s comments reflect the
National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, which increased to 60 in June after sitting at 58 for four consecutive months.
The index reflects changes in three components: buyer traffic, current sales conditions and expected sales conditions over the next six months. All three components moved higher.
The latest activity in the Census Bureau report left a seasonally adjusted 1.019 million units under construction as of the end of last month.
Home builders completed construction on on 81,100 U.S. housing units during the most-recent month, more than 73,200 the previous month but just shy of the 83,900 a year previous.
That put the seasonally adjusted annual rate of completed construction at 988,000, up 5 percent from the prior report but off 4 percent from the year-prior report.
Completed construction soared 21 percent from April to a seasonally adjusted 166,000 rate in the Midwest, while the rate was up nearly 6 percent in the South to a 530,000 annual rate and rose nearly that much in the West to a rate of 230,000.
But in the Northeast, the rate tumbled by a quarter to 62,000.
