The annual rate of building permits and completed construction turned lower last month, though more new construction was started.
Permit-issuing municipalities in the United States authorized 90,000 privately owned housing units during the final month of last year.
The total retreated compared to the upwardly revised 91,300
in November and the downwardly revised 97,500 in December 2015.
Historical data from the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which reported December 2016’s numbers on Thursday, indicate that there were 1,186,900 permits issued during all of 2016, slightly more than the 1,182,600 issued in 2015.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the annual rate of permits dipped to 1.210 million in December 2016 from an upwardly revised 1.212 million a month earlier. But the rate inched up from a downwardly revised 1.201 million a year earlier.
Permits in the South retreated a seasonably adjusted 3 percent from November 2016 to a 568,000 annual rate. It was the only region with a decline.
A less than 1 percent rise in the Midwest put December’s annual rate at 189,000, while the rate was up less than 3 percent in the Northeast to 113,000, and the rate rose more than 3 percent in the West to 340,000.
On one-unit properties, the U.S. annual rate of permits rose 4.7 percent from November to 817,000. Multifamily permits, however, were down 10 percent to an annual rate of 355,000.
The latest monthly activity left a seasonally adjusted 138,000
units authorized but not started as of year-end 2016.
The report indicated that a seasonally adjusted 1.226 million housing units were started last month, more than the upwardly revised 1.102 million in November and upwardly revised 1.160 million in December 2015.
A statement from the National Association of Home Builders highlighted how a surge in multifamily production overcame a drop in single-family starts.
“Despite the slight dip in single-family production, December’s rate is still the fourth highest single-family pace since the Great Recession, and single-family starts also posted solid gains for the year,” NAHB Chairman Granger MacDonald said in the statement.
Last year concluded with a seasonally adjusted 1.054 million units under construction.
Home builders completed construction on 105,500 housing units in December 2016, more than upwardly revised 100,700 the prior month and 95,600 a year prior.
Full-year 2016 completed construction climbed to 1,062,300
units from 968,200 the previous year.
The seasonally adjusted annual rate of U.S. completed construction declined to 1.123 million from an upwardly revised 1.219 million in November.
But the rate strengthened from an upwardly revised 1.033 million in December of 2015.
In the South, completed construction plunged 14 percent from November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 604,000. A 2 percent drop left December’s rate at 184,000 in the Midwest.
In the West, there was no change to the 221,000 annual rate.
A 1 percent increase left last month’s rate at 114,000 in the Northeast.
Construction on one-unit U.S. properties
was completed at a rate of 761,000 during December 2016, down a percent on a month-over-month basis. Multifamily construction was completed at a rate of 355,000, plunging 19 percent from November 2016.
