Despite the oft-cited hurdles, housing production continued to strengthen in March. Permits for residential construction were issued at seasonally adjusted annual rates that surpassed 1,800 for the fourth consecutive month and housing starts were the highest for any month since June 2006. The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development said the annual rate of permitting during the month was 1,873 units, an 0.4 percent increase from February’s upwardly revised 1,865. This was 6.7 percent above the rate the prior March. The permitting rate each month from December forward has topped the results for any month since May 2006. [housingpermitschart] Single family permits declined 4.8 percent from February and the 1,147-unit rate was down 3.9 percent from a year earlier. Permits for units in buildings with five or more increased 10.9 percent for the month and were 33.6 percent higher year-over-year. On an unadjusted basis there were 169,400 permits issued during the month compared to 131,500 in February. Single family starts jumped to 107,100 from 87,100. So far in 2022 there have been 433,000 permits issued, 277,800 of them for single family units. This is a 6.3 percent increase from year-to-date (YTD) permits in 2021 although single-family permitting is essentially unchanged. The 142,000 multifamily permits represent 19.8 percent growth. After stalling in the spring and summer of 2021, housing starts began to recover in November, gaining in all but one month since. The 0.3 percent uptick in March took the annual rate to 1.793 million and it is 3.9 percent higher than a year earlier. Starts totaled 147,400 units on an unadjusted basis, a 20,000-unit month-over-month increase.
Source: Mortgage News Daily
