By Jan Swanson | Mortgage News Daily
While housing completions were down, residential construction improved again in November. Permitting was especially strong with a 6.2 percent month-over-month increase. The U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development reported that permits were issued at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,639,000 during the month. This was 8.5 percent higher than the permitting level in November 2019. The earlier October estimate was revised down by 1,000 units to 1,544,000.
Analysts polled by Econoday had predicted that permits would be in a range of 1,480,000 to 1,580,000 with a consensus of 1,553,000. The forecast from Trading Economics was 1,550,000.
Permits for single-family construction rose 1.3 percent from the previous month’s rate of 1,128,000, (revised from 1,120,000.) November’s annual rate of 1,143,000 was 22.2 percent higher than a year earlier. Permits for units in building with five or more were up 22.8 percent from October to 441,000 annual units but have fallen behind last year’s by 17.4 percent.
