Housing Starts, Builder Confidence Slip, Permits Rise
Multifamily starts dropped 25.1 percent and single-family home slipped 2.4 percent in October, based on data from HUD and the Commerce Department. Seasonally adjusted rates for construction are now 338,000 multifamily and 772,000 single-family homes.
Permits, however, took an uptick, growing 4.1 percent in total, with multifamily permits up 6.8 percent and single-family permits increasing 2.4 percent. National Association of Home Builders chairman Tom Woods says the permit increase in consistent with builders optimism. Starts have stayed above one million for seven months "the longest streak in almost seven years.”
“This month’s decline can be attributable to the volatile multifamily sector adjusting to trend after an unusually high September, as well as the storms and flooding affecting single-family production in the South,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “However, with permits ticking upward, we expect to see the housing market continue to grow at a modest pace.”
However, builder confidence for newly constructed single-family homes slipped three points to 62 in November, based on the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI).
“Even with this month’s drop, builder confidence has remained in the 60s for six straight months — a sign that the single-family housing market is making long-term headway,” Woods said.
“The November report is pullback from an unusually high October, and is more in line with the consistent, modest growth that we have seen throughout the year,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “A firming economy, continued job creation and affordable mortgage rates should keep housing on an upward trajectory as we approach 2016.”
You can find more information here: nahb.org/hmi and here: housingeconomics.com.
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