Monthly permits for new home building slowed last month, with the Northeast leading the decline. But the region also led an increase in housing completions.
Building permits authorized for privately owned housing units
came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,119,000 in July.
The pace of building permits tumbled from the previous month, when the annual rate was a downwardly revised 1,337,000.
But activity picked up from the 1,041,000 rate as of year previous, according to historical data jointly released from the Department of
Housing and Urban Development and the Census Bureau.
In the Northeast, authorizations plummeted 60 percent to 113,000. A 10 percent drop was recorded in the West, leaving that index at 264. At 166, the index for the Midwest was down five percent, and a two percent decline left the South’s index at 576 — the highest of any region.
On just U.S. single-family authorizations, the rate slipped two percent from June to 679,000.
The inventory of privately owned housing units that have been authorized but not started as of July 31, 2015, totaled 144,000. The inventory diminished from 153,000 a month earlier but has grown from 109,000 a year earlier.
Last month’s housing starts were
at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,206,000, inching up from an upwardly revised 1,204,000 the previous month.
Housing starts have accelerated compared to July 2014, when the rate was 1,095,000.
A one-fifth leap to 179,000 in midwest housing starts was the biggest increase.
Housing starts rose eight percent in the South to 589,000, while the West was off three percent to 277,000, and the Northeast sank 28 repent to 161,000.
Included in July 2015 U.S. housing starts were 782,000 single-family housing starts, more than the upwardly revised 693,000 a month previous.
The most-recent activity left the U.S. inventory of houses under construction at
908,000 as of July 31, 2015. The inventory expanded from 890,000 one month prior and 790,000 a year prior.
At a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 987,000, housing completions were up from the downwardly revised 964,000 in June. Housing completions numbered 861,000 in July 2014.
The most homes were completed in the South,
where the seasonally adjusted annual rate was 514,000 — though that was off less than three percent from June.
In the Northeast, the pace of home completions soared 36 percent from the previous month to 98,000. The month-over-month increase was 12 percent in the Midwest, where the rate was 166,000, and the West slipped more than three percent
to 209,000.
Single-family properties accounted for 627,000 of the latest U.S. completions, off from the downwardly revised 636,000 rate a month earlier.
