The annual rate of building permits soared to the highest level since 2015. But weakening was reported for construction started and completed.
In U.S. municipalities that issue
permits for housing units, there were 86,800 permits that were issued during the first month of this year.
The total descended from an upwardly revised 91,400 in December 2016 but ascended from the upwardly revised 74,800 in January 2016.
Those metrics were jointly delivered Thursday by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Applying seasonal adjustments to the numbers, the annual rate of permits was 1.285 million in January — the highest rate since November 2015. The rate was an upwardly revised 1.228 million in the final month of 2016 and downwardly revised 1.188 million in the first month of last year.
The increase was driven by multifamily activity, with the rate climbing 24 percent from December to 446,000. Permits for one-unit properties, however, declined 3 percent to 808,000.
In the Northeast, the seasonally adjusted annual rate was 149,000, surging from December 2016 by 30 percent — the biggest increase of any region. A 10 percent rise in the South left the rate there at 642,000, while a 5 percent gain put the rate in the Midwest at 198,000.
Only the West had a decline: 13 percent to 296,000.
There were a seasonally adjusted 141,000 U.S. units authorized but not started as of Jan. 31, 2017.
Construction was started at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.246 million last month, off 3 percent from a month earlier but up 11 percent from a year earlier.
“A settling of housing production is in line with what we are hearing from builders — that they are largely optimistic about current market conditions but still face supply-side headwinds and regulatory hurdles,” National Association of Home Builders Chairman Granger MacDonald said in a statement
NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz added,
“Some pull back in housing production is unsurprising after an overly strong multifamily reading last month.”
January 2017 concluded with a seasonally adjusted 1.069 million units under construction.
Home builders completed construction
on 72,100 U.S. housing units during the most-recent month. The total sank from a downwardly revised 104,400 in December and slipped from an upwardly revised 72,500 in January 2016.
The seasonally adjusted annual rate of completed construction was 1.047 million in January 2017, off from
a downwardly revised 1.109 million the prior month and a downwardly revised 1.056 a year prior.
Single-family completed construction rose 4 percent from December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 800,000. But multifamily construction plunged 27 percent to 244,000.
Overall completed construction was down 22 percent from the final month of 2016 in the Northeast to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of
81,000. A 17 percent drop in the West left the rate at 194,000, and the Midwest experienced a 13 percent decline to 160,000.
But completed construction was up 4 percent in the South to a rate of 612,000.
