New building permits have failed to rise for four consecutive months now, with activity tumbling 8 percent last month thanks to multifamily.
Permits were authorized on new privately owned housing units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.086 million for the month of March.
Residential building permit activity diminished compared to the previous month, when the rate came in at an upwardly revised 1.177 million.
The housing data was jointly reported Tuesday by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Genworth Mortgage Insurance Chief Economist Tian Liu noted in a written statement, “This is a disappointing report.”
Permit issuance, however, edged up
from a year ago, when the rate was 1.038 million.
The month-over-month decline was driven by the multifamily sector, with the rate of new permits on structures with five or more units sinking 21
to an annual rate of 0.324 million last month.
Multifamily has led monthly declines for two months in a row.
Permits slipped 1 percent on one-unit properties to a rate of 0.727 million, while a 6 percent improvement drove up the rate on two-to-four-unit properties to 0.035 million.
By region, the Northeast sank 18 percent from February on an overall basis to an annual rate
of 101,000.
A 15 percent decline in the West put the rate there at 248,000, while the South declined 3 percent to 552,000, and the Midwest was also down 3 percent to 185,000.
Without any seasonal adjustments, there were 98,500 U.S. permits issued last month, more than the 84,500 issued in February.
The report indicated that there were a seasonally adjusted
149,000 units authorized as of March but not yet started. The number inched up from 147,000 a month earlier and increased from 133,000 a year earlier.
Home builders started construction on new housing units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.089 million, falling 9 percent from the upwardly revised 1.194 million rate in February. But construction starts improved from the 0.954 million rate in March 2015.
Housing starts in the Midwest tumbled by a quarter from February and by 16 percent in the West. The Northeast saw a 9 percent drop, while the South was down 8 percent.
Housing supply modestly improved last month by less than a percent to a seasonally adjusted 990,000 in March and shot up 18 percent from the same month last year.
The ultimate home-building metric — completed construction — increased on a national basis to an annual rate of 1.061 million from
an upwardly revised 1.025 million in February and 0.806 million in March of last year.
Interestingly, even though one-unit completed construction was off less than a percent, multifamily completed construction soared 18 percent from February.
In the Northeast, overall construction was completed at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 94,000, leaping 21 percent from a month earlier. A 19 percent rise put the rate at 170,000 in the Midwest, while completed construction was up 7 percent in the South to a rate of 571,000.
But in the West, construction was completed at an annual rate of 226,000 — tumbling 16 percent from February.
