Thursday, September 17, 2009

Breaking Down the Housing Numbers

News reports are declaring an uptick in new housing starts. Well, sort of, versus July they are up, versus last year, not even by a long shot.

Here's the latest U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly announced data on new residential construction statistics for July 2009:

BUILDING PERMITS

Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 579,000.

This is 2.7 percent above the revised July rate of 564,000, but is 32.4 percent below the August 2008 estimate of 857,000.

Single-family authorizations in August were at a rate of 462,000; this is 0.2 percent below the revised July figure of 463,000. .

HOUSING STARTS

Privately-owned housing starts in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 598,000. This is 1.5 percent above the revised July estimate of 580,000, but is 29.6 percent below the August 2008 rate of 849,000.

Single-family housing starts in August were at a rate of 479,000; this is 3.0 percent below the revised July figure of 494,000.

HOUSING COMPLETIONS

Privately-owned housing completions in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 760,000. This is 5.5 percent below the revised July estimate of 804,000 and is 25.3 percentbelow the August 2008 rate of 1,018,000.

Single-family housing completions in August were at a rate of 489,000; this is 1.6 percentbelow the revised July figure of 497,000. The August rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 256,000.

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