Building Permits on the Down Side

 

Single-family authorizations in September were at a rate of 405,000; this is 0.5 percent above the revised August figure of 403,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 111,000 in September.

Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in September were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 539,000.  This is 5.6 percent below the revised August rate of 571,000 and is 10.9 percent below the September 2009 estimate of 605,000. For single units it’s down 14.4 percent in the past year and down 0.9 percent for 5 or more units.

It increased 15 percent for 2 to 4 units during that time. The West fared the best with an overall decrease of 4.1 percent and decrease of 14.3 percent for single units. The region that fared the worst was the Midwest with decreases of 14.6 percent overall and 12.5 percent for single units.

– Courtesy of Economics & Statistics Administration