The New Residential Construction report had a mixed showing in October as building permits outperformed estimates and housing starts underperformed.
Housing starts decreased to an annual rate of 1,520,000 starts in October from 1,530,000 starts in September, missing economist estimates for 1,590,000 housing starts.
Meanwhile, building permits picked up more than expected, increasing to an annual rate of 1,650,000 permits in October from 1,586,000 in September. This narrowly beat economist estimates for 1,640,000 permits.
Singe-Unit Homes
Single-unit housing starts declined 3.9% month-over-month from the downwardly revised September figure. The decline was across the board as the Northeast (-15.2%) and the Midwest (-7.5%) led the run lower.
While that decline in starts wasn’t welcome, authorizations for single-family homes increased 2.7%, with growth in all regions except the West (-0.4%). The silver lining here is that despite starts coming up short, the indicator for future growth - permits - outpaced expectations.
Completions
While permits increased and starts decreased, completed housing projects remained neutral from September to October. Single-unit homes decreased 1.7% while projects on buildings with 5 units or more increased 4.1%.
