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| US builders continue to rein-in new housing production, NAHB says Single-family home builders continued to practice aggressive inventory management in July by slowing the pace of new production nearly 3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 641,000 units, according to Commerce Department figures. This was the lowest rate of single-family housing starts since January 1991. For the second month in a row, overall housing starts and building permit numbers were skewed by a building code change in New York City that caused an unusually large fluctuation in multifamily activity for the Northeast region. A 23.6 percent decline in multifamily starts to 324,000 units partially offset a 41 percent gain in the previous month, and contributed to an 11 percent decline in total housing starts for July – dropping the seasonally adjusted annual rate to 965,000 units. Builders also pulled fewer permits for anticipated new-home construction in July, said the Commerce Department. Single-family permits declined 5.2 percent for the month to a 584, 000-unit rate, the lowest since August 1982. Meanwhile, overall permit issuance and multifamily permit issuance, both heavily affected by the New York City data, declined 17.7 percent to 937,000 units and 32.4 percent to 353,000 units, respectively. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Construction News :: home page |