WASHINGTON – During January 2008, the national rate of building permits issued, an indicator of how many homes will be started in the coming months, continued to slow, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released today.
The annual rate dropped 3 percent during January to an annual rate of 1.048 million from a 1.08 million annual rate during December 2007.
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With fewer permits being issued and national home sales in a slump, economists are wary that housing starts will soon rise, Bloomberg News reported today.
“We don’t think housing has hit bottom yet,” Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto, told Bloomberg News. “Until we get some stabilization in sales or even a mild improvement, it’s likely that construction will continue to weaken.”
But national housing starts did see a small, 0.8-percent reprieve during January. After three months of declines, the annual rate rose to 1.012 million from the 1.004-million annual rate during December 2007, the Census Bureau said.
Nationally, the annual rate of housing starts for all homes during 2007 was 1.355 million, a 24.7-percent drop from the 1.80-million annual rate during 2006, according to Census Bureau statistics. (READ MORE)
The 2007 annual rate – the lowest the country has seen since 1995 – was 34.5 percent lower than the 2.07 million annual rate for home starts during 2005.
Additional information, including the full New Residential Construction Report from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is available at www.census.gov .
