Building permits and starts fell in February according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. (CB)
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,682,000.
- M-O-M: This is 10.8% below the revised January rate of 1,886,000
- Y-O-Y: This is 17.0% above the February 2020 rate of 1,438,000
Privately-owned housing starts in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,421,000.
- M-O-M: This is 10.3%below the revised January estimate of 1,584,000.
- Y-O-Y: This is 9.3% below the February 2020 rate of 1,567,000.
Housing demand is at an all-time high and yet we have housing starts falling and yesterday it was reported that homebuilder confidence is down. So what gives? The weather certainly isn’t helping things. The brutal cold that impacted much of the country slowed if not halted a lot of home construction projects. It also appears that commodity price increases are squeezing homebuilder profits. The Wall Street Journal reported on this Wednesday morning. (WSJ)
The good news is that housing units authorized, but not started was up 3.9% and backlogs of single-family units jumped 6.1% to the highest since May 2007.
INTERESTING NOTE: Regionally, construction fell in three of the four regions, The Northeast saw the biggest decline with a 40% drop. The Midwest saw a 35% drop and the South fell 9.7% The only increase was in the West which saw a 17.6% increase.