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September 17, 2020US HOUSING STARTS AND BUILDING PERMITS, AUGUST 2020 The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly announced today the new residential construction statistics for August 2020.
BUILDING PERMITS
US residential building permits decreased 0.9 per cent in August 2020 compared to the revised July 2020 estimate, to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1,470,000. This is 0.1 per cent below the August 2019 estimate of 1,471,000.
Year-over-year (Aug 2019 vs Aug 2020), permits for single units increased 15.6 percent while permits for structures with 2 to 4 units increased 26.2 per cent. These gains were largely offset by the 28.5 per cent year-over-year decline in permits for structures with 5 units or more.
In the first 8 months of 2020, building permits are up 0.9 per cent compared to the same months in 2019. Permits are up for single unit structures (+6.8%), up for structures with 2 to 4 units (+1.8%), and down for structures with 5 units or more (-9.8%).
HOUSING STARTS
In August 2020, US housing starts decreased 5.1 per cent compared to the revised July 2020 estimate, to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1,416,000. This was 2.8 per cent above the August 2019 estimate of 1,377,000.
Year-over-year (Aug 2019 vs Aug 2020), starts for structures with 5 or more units decreased 16.9 per cent. Starts for single unit structures increased 12.1 per cent over August 2019.
Year-to-date (Jan-Aug 2020 vs. Jan-Aug 2019), housing starts are up 6.3 per cent with increases in both single unit structures (+4.2%) and structures with 5 or more units (+11.4%).
Source: US Census Bureau New Residential Construction
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