WASHINGTON, July 17 – Responding to worsening conditions in the nation’s housing
and financial markets, single-family home builders continued to slow the pace of
new construction in June, according to the latest data released by the U.S.
Commerce Department today.
Starts of new single-family homes declined 5.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted
annual rate of 647,000 units in June. This was the slowest pace in 17 years, and
marked a decline of 64.5 percent from the peak of the building boom in January
of 2006. Meanwhile, issuance of building permits for single-family homes
declined 3.5 percent to a rate of 613,000 units.
“Builders continue to do their part to reduce inventories of unsold homes on the
market by reining in new construction,” noted Sandy Dunn, president of the
National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Point
Pleasant, W.Va. “Now more than ever, it’s up to Congress, which must finish its
work on a badly needed housing stimulus package that will help stabilize the
housing market and stem the negative effects of the housing downswing on our
economy.”
“The single-family data from today’s report is exactly in keeping with what our
builder members have been telling us in recent surveys,” added NAHB Chief
Economist David Seiders. “Traffic of prospective buyers is down substantially,
and consumer confidence is very low. Job-market losses, deepening problems in
the finance arena and sinking home values aggravated by the wave of foreclosures
are all contributing factors that are keeping potential home buyers on the
sidelines. Clearly there is a need for immediate action by Congress and the
Administration to help put an end to this downward economic spiral and restore
the homeownership dreams of many Americans.”
Overall housing starts and building permits posted misleading gains of 9.1
percent and 11.6 percent, to 1.07 million units and 1.09 million units,
respectively, for the month, largely due to a one-time bump in multifamily
activity that was related to newly instituted building code changes in New York
City. Excluding the Northeast multifamily data, there was a 4 percent decrease
in overall housing starts and a 0.7 percent gain in building permits for the
month.
Multifamily housing starts, fueled by a big jump in the Northeast, posted a 42.5
percent gain to a rate of 419,000 units in June. Multifamily permits, also
skewed by the Northeast/New York City data, posted a 39.4 percent gain to
478,000 units.
The latest regional data showed that Northeast housing starts more than doubled
in June (as a result of the New York City data), while Midwest starts posted a
10.5 percent decline, starts in the South posted a 0.4 percent gain and starts
in the West registered an 8.2 percent decline in June. Building permits (again
affected by the New York City data) showed a 73 percent gain in the Northeast
for June, along with more typical numbers such as a 2 percent decline in the
Midwest, a 3 percent gain in the South and a 0.9 percent gain in the West.
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