New home construction continues to show modest improvement | St ...

By Dennis Norman, on May 16th, 2012

The U.S. Census Bureau and US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued their report on New Residential Construction for April 2012 showing an increase in single-family home building permits from the month before of 1.9 percent and a 18.5 percent increase in new home starts compared to the year before.

Highlights from the April 2012 Report:

• Building permits issued for single-family residences were at an annual rate of 475,000 homes which is a 1.9 percent increase from the prior month and an increase of 18.5 percent from a year before.
• Housing starts for single-family residences were at an annual rate of 492,000 which is a increase of 2.3 percent from the prior month and an increase of 18.8 percent from a year before.
• Homes completed were at an annual rate of 489,000 homes, which is an increase of 11.4 percent from the prior month and an increase of 14.3 percent from a year before.

As I say every month, we need to remember that all the numbers above are ?seasonally adjusted? annual rates and the year over year comparisons are just comparing the numbers for the current month versus the a year before. Another way I like to look at where things stand is to simply look at the year to date data; actual numbers, not seasonally adjusted, compared to last years ytd numbers at this same time. I think this may give a little better comparison so those numbers are below:

• In April, there were 44,000 permits issued for new homes compared with 37,200 the same month of the prior year.
• In April, there were 45,800 new homes started compared with 40,200 the same month of the prior year.
• In April, there were 37,800 new homes completed compared with 33,700 the same month of the prior year

New home construction continues to slowly increase which encouraging and I expect to see the trend continue and probably increase as we move into the summer.

Related posts:

1. New home construction activity continues to increase
2. New home construction continues at record low pace for the year
3. New home construction continues to outpace new home sales; look for inventory to grow
4. US Home Prices show modest 0.3 percent increase from June to July according to Federal Housing Finance Agency
5. New home construction on the increase

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