Despite weakening housing permits and completed construction, new construction rose last month. In the West, new construction soared as completed construction plummeted.
In permit-issuing places, there were 96,500
privately owned single-family housing units that were authorized by building permits during November.
Last month’s activity brought the number of building permits issued from Jan. 1 through Nov. 30 of this year to 1.1673 million.
Those statistics were jointly reported Tuesday by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Applying adjustments for seasonal factors, the annual rate of permits was 1.298 million last month, off more than a percent from October’s upwardly revised rate. Still, permit activity ascended more than 3 percent from the upwardly revised level for November 2016.
The seasonally adjusted annual rate for one-unit permits was 862,000, rising more than 1 percent from the preceding report. But a nearly 9 percent drop left the annual rate on multifamily properties at 395,000.
The total rate in the Northeast was a seasonally adjusted 115,000 as of November 2017, sinking from October by almost 6 percent — the worst month-over-month decline of any region. The Midwest’s rate tumbled nearly 5 percent to 184,000, while the West saw a 3 percent decline to 357,000.
However, the seasonally adjusted annual rate in the South improved more than 1 percent from the previous month to 642,000.
The report indicated that last month concluded with a seasonally adjusted 155,000 housing units that were authorized but not yet started.
A key metric followed by home builders, the annual rate of construction started, was a seasonally adjusted
1.297 million as of the most-recent month, improving from a downwardly revised 1.256 million a month earlier and an upwardly revised 1.149 million a year earlier.
The single-family rate of housing starts — 924,000 — was the highest rate since August 2007.
“The strong November reading indicates that builders are continuing to increase single-family production to meet growing demand for housing,” National Association of Home Builders Chief Economist Robert Dietz said in a written statement. “With low unemployment and increasing owner-occupied household formation, single-family starts should continue to make gains in 2018.”
The improvement in new construction was led by the West, where the seasonally adjusted annual rate soared 19 percent from October to 344,000. The South climbed 11 percent to 691,000.
But in the Northeast, the rate plunged 40 percent to 87,000, while it was down 13 percent in the Midwest to 175,000.
U.S. housing units under construction as of Nov. 30 were a seasonally adjusted 1.110 million.
Construction was completed on 93,000 U.S. housing units last month, bringing the year-to-date total to 1,038,100.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the annual rate of housing units completed was 1.116 million, sinking 6 percent from October’s downwardly revised level and falling 7 percent from the upwardly revised rate in November 2016.
Unlike construction started, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of completed construction in the West tumbled 26 percent from the preceding month to 202,000. A 7 percent decline in the South left the rate there at 587,000.
But the Northeast’s rate was up 9 percent to 153,000, and the Midwest’s rate accelerated 18 percent to 174,000.
