Housing activity slowed in September but remains brisk – The Property Chronicle
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Housing activity slowed in September but remains brisk

Residential Investor

Total housing starts fell to a 1.555 million annual rate in September from a 1.580 million pace in August, a 1.6% decrease. From a year ago, total starts are up 7.4%. Total housing permits also fell in September, posting a 7.7% drop to 1.589 million in September from 1.721 million in August. Total permits are at about the same level as they were in September 2020 level.

The dominant single-family segment posted a rate of 1.080 million in September, the same as in August and are down 2.3% from a year ago. Single-family permits experienced a 0.9% decline to 1.041 million versus 1.050 million in August. Single-family starts and permits have been trending lower from peaks around the start of the year, but remain at a historically robust pace (see first chart).

Starts of multifamily structures with five or more units fell 5.1% to 467,000, but are still up a robust 38.2% over the past year while starts for the two- to four-family-unit segment were unchanged at an 8,000-unit pace.  Combined, multifamily starts were off 5.0% to 475,000 in September (see first chart) and show a gain of 38.5% from a year ago.

Multifamily permits for the 5-or-more group sank 21.0% to 498,000 while permits for the two-to-four-unit category jumped 22.0% to 50,000. Combined, multifamily permits were 548,000, off 18.3% for the month (see first chart), but up 17.1% from a year ago.






Residential Investor

About Robert Hughes

Robert Hughes joined the American Institute for Economic Research in 2013 following more than 25 years in economic and financial markets research on Wall Street. He was formerly the Head of Global Equity Strategy for Brown Brothers Harriman, where he developed equity investment strategy combining top-down macro analysis with bottom-up fundamentals. Prior to that, he was a senior equity strategist for State Street Global Markets, senior economic strategist with Prudential Equity Group and senior economist and financial markets analyst for Citicorp Investment Services.

Articles by Robert Hughes

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