Today’s New Residential Construction Report continues to firmly demonstrate the intensity of the total washout conditions that now exist in the nation’s housing markets and for new residential construction showing tremendous declines on a year-over-year basis to single family permits both nationally and across every region.Single family housing permits, the most leading of indicators, again suggests extensive weakness in future construction activity dropping 41.4% nationally as compared to December 2006.
Moreover, every region showed significant double digit declines to permits with the West declining 47.3%, the South declining 43.9%, the Midwest declining 30.4% and the Northeast declining 27.4%.
Keep in mind that these declines are coming on the back of last year’s record declines.
To illustrate the extent to which permits and starts have declined, I have created the following charts (click for larger versions) that show the percentage changes of the current values compared to the peak years of 2004 and 2005.
Notice that on each chart the line is essentially combining the year-over-year changes seen in 2005, 2006 and 2007 showing virtually every measure trending down precipitously.
Declines to single family permits have NOW ACCELERATED measurably in terms of monthly YOY declines, and the fact that we are now seeing declines of roughly 30%-40% on the back of 2006 declines should provide a an unequivocal indication that the housing markets are by no means stabilizing.
Here are the statistics outlined in today’s report:
Housing Permits
Nationally
- Single family housing permits down 41.4% as compared to December 2006
- For the Northeast, single family housing down 27.4% as compared to December 2006.
- For the Midwest, single family housing permits down 30.4% as compared to December 2006.
- For the South, single family housing permits down 43.9% compared to December 2006.
- For the West, single family housing permits down 47.3% as compared to December 2006.
Nationally
- Single family housing starts down 36.0% as compared to December 2006.
- For the Northeast, single family housing starts down 29.9% as compared to December 2006.
- For the Midwest, single family housing starts down 29.4% as compared to December 2006.
- For the South, single family housing starts down 30.0% as compared to December 2006.
- For the West, single family housing starts down 54.1% as compared to December 2006.
Nationally
- Single family housing completions down 32.8% as compared to December 2006.
- For the Northeast, single family housing completions down 16.8% as compared to December 2006.
- For the Midwest, single family housing completions down 29.8% as compared to December 2006.
- For the South, single family housing completions down 38.7% as compared to December 2006.
- For the West, single family housing completions down 26.5% as compared to December 2006.
