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 particularly for new residential construction showing tremendous declines on both a peak and 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 41.86% nationally as compared to February 2007.
Moreover, every region showed significant double digit declines to permits with the West declining 53.4%, the South declining 40.7%, the Midwest declining 36.2% and the Northeast declining 20.0%.
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 on a year-over-year basis as well as compared to the peak year of 2004.
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%-50% 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 41.86% as compared to February 2007.
- For the Northeast, single family housing down 20.0% as compared to February 2007.
- For the Midwest, single family housing permits down 36.2% as compared to February 2007.
- For the South, single family housing permits down 40.7% compared to February 2007.
- For the West, single family housing permits down 53.4% as compared to February 2007.
Nationally
- Single family housing starts down 40.5% as compared to February 2007.
- For the Northeast, single family housing starts down 28.9% as compared to February 2007.
- For the Midwest, single family housing starts down 25.0% as compared to February 2007.
- For the South, single family housing starts down 42.5% as compared to February 2007.
- For the West, single family housing starts down 46.9% as compared to February 2007.
Nationally
- Single family housing completions down 30.6% as compared to February 2007.
- For the Northeast, single family housing completions down 48.1% as compared to February 2007.
- For the Midwest, single family housing completions down 4.2% as compared to February 2007.
- For the South, single family housing completions down 33.5% as compared to February 2007.
- For the West, single family housing completions down 34.6% as compared to February 2007.
