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Single-Family Home Starts Slip Further in June
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 on July 17.
Starts of new single-family homes declined 5.3% 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% from the peak of the building boom in January of 2006. Meanwhile, issuance of building permits for single-family homes declined 3.5% 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,” said NAHB President Sandy Dunn. “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,” he said.
“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,” Seiders said.
Overall housing starts and building permits posted misleading gains of 9.1% and 11.6%, 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% decrease in overall housing starts and a 0.7% gain in building permits for the month.
Multifamily housing starts, fueled by a big jump in the Northeast, posted a 42.5% 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% gain to 478,000 units.
The latest regional data showed housing starts more than doubling in the Northeast in June (as a result of the New York City data), while starts posted a 10.5% decline in the Midwest, a 0.4% percent increase in the South and an 8.2% drop in the West.
Building permits (again affected by the New York City data) showed a 73% gain in the Northeast for June, along with a 2% decline in the Midwest, a 3% gain in the South and a 0.9% gain in the West.
 Want to Know the Housing Forecast for the Top 100 Metros?
Find out in HousingEconomic.com’s 2008 to 2009 Metro Forecast (free preview).
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To learn more, visit www.HousingEconomics.com.
 Free NAHB Kit Gives Builders Back-to-Basics Tips to Navigate the Slowdown
What was once expected to be a relatively mild housing slump following three years of record new home construction and sales has given way to a significant downturn.
To help members navigate the uncharted waters of this slowdown, NAHB has compiled a comprehensive “Back to Basics” online toolkit — the best of the basics, the tried and true and the truly new. To access the toolkit, click here.
To access the “Back to Basics” toolkit, you must be an NAHB member and have a login to www.nahb.org. To create a login, go to www.nahb.org/login or click on the log-in button on the main menu bar.
For assistance, call the NAHB Member Service Center at 800-368-5242.
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