Led by the Northeast, building permits and completed construction fell on a month-over-month basis. A year-over-year gain was reported, though.
In municipalities that issue building permits, there were 95,800 permits issued for privately owned U.S. housing units during the entire month of July.
Activity tumbled compared to the
one month previous, when an upwardly revised 114,400 housing units had building permits that were authorized.
The volume also moved down from the same month in 2015, when an upwardly revised 103,200 permits were issued.
The Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly released the data Tuesday.
So far during 2016, there have been 674,600 permits issued.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, permits were issued at an annual rate of 1.152 million last month, slipping from 1.153 million in June but stronger than an upwardly revised 1.142 million in July 2015.
The rate fell 4 percent from June on one-unit properties to 0.711 million. But the two-to-four-unit rate was up 3 percent to 0.030 million, and the multifamily rate rose 7 percent to 0.411 million.
The total annual rate declined a seasonally adjusted 10 percent from a month earlier in the Northeast
to 0.097 million — the biggest decline of any region — and the West’s rate fell 8 percent to 0.265 million.
But activity ascended 3 percent in the South to an annual rate of 0.600 million, while the Midwest saw an 11 percent gain to 0.190 million.
As of July 31, 2016, there were a seasonally adjusted 133,000
U.S. housing units authorized but not started, down 5 percent on a month-over-month basis and 9 percent on a year-over-year basis.
Construction was started on U.S. housing units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.211 million, higher than an downwardly revised 1.186 million
in June and a downwardly revised 1.147 million in July 2015.
Genworth Chief Economist Tian Liu called the housing starts number “strong.”
“We are particularly pleased with the single-family segment,” Liu said in a written statement. “We believe that growth in housing starts will be led by single-family homes. Single-family homes have experienced a slower recovery in the past few years, and remain under-supplied today.”
That left a seasonally adjusted 1.037 million units under construction at the end of last month, 2 percent more than as of June 30 and 15 percent more than as of July 31, 2015.
Last month saw construction completed on 87,700
housing units, fewer than the downwardly revised 97,300 completed in June but slightly more than the upwardly revised 86,300 completed in July 2015.
During the seven months ended July 31, 2016, the number of completed housing units was
564,800.
Factoring in seasonal adjustments, construction was completed at an annual rate of 1.026 million homes during July 2016.
Completed construction retreated from the downwardly revised 1.119 million
rate the prior month but was stronger than the upwardly revised 0.994 million rate a year prior.
The rate of completed construction
sank 30 percent in the Northeast to an annual rate of 0.085 million, while a 7 percent drop left the rate at 0.525 million in the South and 0.174 million in the Midwest. The West saw a 3 percent decline to 0.242 million.
