A surge in multifamily activity helped boost building permits last month. But weakness in the Northeast, Midwest and multifamily hurt completed construction.
For just the month of November, building permits for privately owned housing units were authorized at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.289 million.
Activity accelerated compared to the previous month, when the rate came in at 1.161 million,
and the same month last year, when the rate was 1.079 million.
The details were jointly reported Wednesday by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Permits were up 22 percent from October in the Midwest to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.211 million. It was the biggest month-over-month rise of any region.
A nearly 22 percent gain was made in the West to 0.320 million, while the the South increased nearly six percent to 0.627 million. In the Northeast, the November rate was 0.131 million — no different than in prior report.
The seasonally adjusted U.S. one-unit rate was was up one percent last month to 0.723 million. But multifamily permits soared 31 percent from October to 0.539 million.
Without any seasonal adjustments, the total U.S. rate was 90,800 units.
Last month’s activity left a seasonally adjusted
146,000 U.S. housing units authorized but not started as of Nov. 30.
Construction was started on privately owned housing units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.173
million housing units as of the latest month. That was an 11 percent gain on a month-over-month basis and a 17 percent year-over-year gain.
Construction starts rose 21 percent in the South to an 0.615 million
rate and six percent in the West to a rate of 0.254 million.
But in the Midwest, there was no increase, leaving that rate at 0.174 million, while the Northeast saw a nine percent decline to 0.130 million.
November 2015 ended with a seasonally adjusted 0.965 million
housing units under construction, rising 2.2 percent from a month earlier and 18 percent stronger than a year earlier.
Home builders finished construction at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.947 million, off three percent from October but nine percent more than in November 2014.
Although single-family completions edged up less than a percent from the prior month, November’s multifamily completion rate tumbled 10 percent.
Construction was finished at a rate of 0.094 million in the Midwest, plunging 39 percent from the previous month. The Northeast fell 11 percent to a rate of 0.107 million.
But in the South, completed construction rose five percent to a rate of 0.500 million, and the West had a nine percent increase to 0.246 million.
