Month-over-month weakness in the pace of building permits and completed construction was led by the Northeast. But national activity rose from a year earlier.
April 2017 saw 102,900
new privately owned housing units authorized in permit-issuing places. Volume slowed from an upwardly revised 112,500 the prior month.
But the number of permits issued ascended by a nominal amount
compared to the same month last year, when there were an upwardly revised 101,900 permits issued.
Historical data from the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which jointly reported the latest month’s data Tuesday, indicate that
387,500 permits were issued in the first-four months of 2017.
Adjusting the numbers for seasonal factors, the annual rate of permits was 1.229 million during April 2017, off from 1.260 million the previous month.
The
National Association of Home Builders weighed in on the numbers.
“Despite this minor pull back, builders are optimistic about market conditions and expect more consumer activity in the months ahead,” NAHB Chairman Granger MacDonald said in a written statement. “However, builders need to be careful to manage expenses as construction costs continue to rise.”
Seasonally adjusted building permits were up from 1.163 million a year previous.
A seasonally adjusted 10 percent decrease from March 2017 in the Northeast was the biggest drop of any region and left the annual rate there at 122,000. The South was down 7 percent to a rate of 577,000.
But the annual rate picked up 1 percent in the Midwest to a seasonally adjusted 194,000, while it jumped 9 percent in the West to 336,000 in April.
“While we saw a little pause in market growth this month, single-family production is still up 7 percent since the start of 2017,” NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz said in the statement. “The April report falls in line with our forecast for continued, gradual strengthening of the single-family sector throughout the year.”
U.S. single-family permits were issued at a rate of 789,000 last month.
There were a seasonally adjusted 136,000
housing units authorized but not started as of April 30, 2017, off a percent from the prior month.
New construction was started at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.172 million last month, falling from 1.203 million in March. But the rate was up from 1.164 million in April 2016.
A seasonally adjusted 1.074 million houses were under construction as of the most-recent date, the same as in the last report.
Construction was completed on 84,200 single-family properties, fewer than the upwardly revised 93,700 a month earlier but more than the upwardly adjusted 73,800 a year earlier. From Jan. 1, 2017, through April 30, there were
331,400 new homes completed.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, new homes were completed at a rate of 1.106 million, down from 1.210 million in March. But construction completed moved up from 0.961 million twelve months ago.
In the Northeast, the annual rate was 299,000, sinking from March by 20 percent — the most of any region. A 12 percent decline in the West left the rate there at 240,000, while the South was down 6 percent to 596,000, and the Midwest slipped less than a percent to 186,000.
