Housing permits and housing starts were both down sharply in October nationwide, and housing completions also declined, the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development Friday announced. But in the Northeast, housing starts were up 31 percent from September’s level.
PERMITS
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.535 million, down 6.3 percent from the revised September rate of 1.638 million and 28.0 from the October 2005 rate of 2.131 million.
For single-family authorizations, the October rate was 1.173 million units per year, down 3.8 percent from September’s 1.219 million. For units in buildings with five units or more, the annual rate was 294,000 in October.
In the Northeast, privately-owned housing units were authorized in October at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 160,000 units per year, down from September’s rate of 164,000 and the year-ago rate of 198,000.
For the year to date, the nation has seen 1.607 million housing authorizations through October, a 12.7-percent decline from the same period last year, the report said. Year-to-date single-family authorizations were 1.220 million, down 15.8 percent.
For the year to date, housing authorizations in the Northeast are at 150,700 through October, down 11.1 percent, and single-family authorizations in the region are at 92,300 units, down 14.6 percent.
STARTS
Privately-owned housing units were started in October at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.486 million, down 14.6 percent from the revised September estimate of 1.740 million units per year and 27.4 percent from the October 2005 rate of 2.046 million.
The rate for single-family housing starts in October was 1.177 million units per year, down 15.9 percent from September’s 1.400 million; for units in buildings with five units or more, the October rate was 266,000 units per year.
For the Northeast region, however, housing starts in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 165,000 units, up 31.0 percent from September’s 126,000 units, though down 2.9 percent from October 2005’s 170,000 units.
The rise was led by single-family starts, the regional rate for which rose to 112,000 units per year, up 10.9 percent from September’s 101,000-unit rate though down 22.2 percent from the year-ago 144,000 unit-per-year rate.
For the year to date, the nation reported 1.575 million housing starts through October, an 11.1-percent decline from the same period last year. The period saw 1.291 million single-family starts, down 12.5 percent year-over-year.
In the Northeast, year-to-date housing starts were 142,800 units through October, down 11.7 percent from the same period of 2005. Single-family starts in the period were at 101,900 units, down 13.4 percent.
COMPLETIONS
Completions of privately-owned housing in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.953 million, down 3.8 percent from the revised September estimate of 2.031 million units per year and 0.7 percent from the October 2005 rate of
1.967 million.
Single-family housing completions in October were at a rate of 1.561 million units per year, a decline of 8.3 percent from September’s rate of 1.702 million; for units in buildings with five units or more, October’s completion rate was 348,000 units per year.
For the Northeast region, the seasonally adjusted rate of housing completions was 173,000 units per year, down 16.8 percent from September’s 208,000-unit rate but up 13.1 percent from the year-ago rate of 153,000 units per year.
October’s rate of single-family completions in the region was 132,000 units per year, down 7.7 percent from September’s 208,000, but up 21.1 percent from October 2005’s 109,000 units per year.
For the year to date, the nation reported 1.641 million housing completions, up 3.8 percent from the same periold last year. The same 10 months saw 1.376 million single-family completions, a 3.4-percent year-over-year increase.
In the Northeast, year-to-date, 151,900 housing completions were reported, up 9.7 percent over the same 10 months last year. The region had 108,700 single-family completions, a year-to-date increase of 4.4 percent.
Additional information is available at www.census.gov.
