Building Permits Climb in December

 

Single-family authorizations in December were at a rate of 440,000; this is 5.5 percent above the revised November figure of 417,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 172,000 in December.

Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 635,000. This is 16.7 percent above the revised November rate of 544,000, but is 6.8 percent below the December 2009 estimate of 681,000. Single unit permits declined 6.9 percent in the past year, but 5 or more units improved 18.6 percent over that time.

The West was the region that fared the best with an overall increase of 33.1 percent for permits in the past year and decline of 12.7 percent for single units. The Midwest did the poorest with an overall decline of 20.5 percent and decline of 22 percent for single units.

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