Last month turned out to be a strong month for new housing activity, and gains in the South and the West led the improvement.
Building permits for privately owned housing units came in at an annual rate of 1.343 million in June. The data was seasonally adjusted.
Activity accelerated from the previous month, when the rate was 1.250 billion. The May figure was revised down from the originally reported 1.275 million.
The construction data was jointly announced Friday by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
A year previous, the annual rate was just 1.033 million.
A three percent gain from the prior month gave the Northeast an annual rate of 0.296 million and the Midwest an 0.176 million rate.
A 10 percent improvement left the South with an 0.583 million annual rate
and the West with an 0.288 million rate.
Single-family permits accounted for 0.687 million of last month’s U.S. rate, up from 0.681 million in May.
As of June 30, there were 153,000 properties that were authorized but had not started construction.
The inventory grew from 141,000 a month earlier and 110,000 a year earlier.
The bureau said that the annual rate of housing starts in June was 1.174 million, improving from a revised rate of 1.069 million the previous month and 0.927 million one year previous.
On just single-family properties, housing starts fell to 0.685 million from 0.691 million in May.
The inventory of homes under construction inched up to 884,000 from 876,000 in May and 768,000 in June 2014.
The rate of housing completions declined to 0.972 million from 1.042 million in May. The rate was better, however, than 0.797 million in June 2014.
On just single-family homes, the annual rate of completions was 0.647 million, slipping from the previous month’s 0.649 million rate.
