January 2015’s US residential construction statistics released

The US Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have released residential construction figures for January 2015. Building permits for privately-owned housing units came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.053 million, down 0.7% on the revised December 2014 rate but up 8.1% on January 2014. Single-family building permit authorisations were also lower than in December 2014. Authorisations fell from December’s revised rate of 675 000 to 654 000 in January 2015, a drop of 3.1%.

Housing starts followed a similar trend. Privately-owned housing starts for January 2015 are estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.065 million. This compares to 1.087 million in December 2014 (-2%) and 897 000 starts in January 2014 (+18.7%). The January 2015 rate for single-family housing starts was 678 000, 6.7% lower than the revised December 2014 figure of 727 000.

There was more positive news for privately-owned housing completions, with the seasonally adjusted annual rate of 930 000 increasing by 1.3% m/m and 9.4% y/y. However, single-family housing completions declined by 2.3% when compared with the revised figure for December 2014.

Adapted from press release by Louise Fordham

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/the-americas/19022015/us-january-2015-residential-construction-figures-365/