The Census Bureau’s preliminary estimate of starts in buildings with five or more apartments for January came in at 260,000 (at a seasonally adjusted annual rate). As predicted in last month’s post, a rate well in excess of 300,000 proved too high to sustain. In fact, the five-plus starts rate for December was revised upward, from 330,000 to 352,000—so the preliminary estimate for January shows up as a 26 percent decline, dropping the five-plus starts rate back to where it was in November. Month to month fluctuations on this order of magnitude are not unusual in the multifamily construction series, however.
On a year-over-year basis, five-plus starts were still up 35 percent, reflecting the generally upward trend in multifamily production that has prevailed since the end of 2010.
Meanwhile, the rate at which new five-plus permits were issued remained relatively stable in January, increasing 1 percent to 311,000—the third straight month the five-plus permit rate has been slightly above 300,000. The rate of new five-plus permits usually runs a little above the rate of new five-plus starts (partly because of the Census Bureau’s tendency to reclassify some units considered multifamily by local permitting offices as single-family attached). Nevertheless, the five-plus permit numbers in recent construction reports have been strong enough to suggest that a five-plus starts rate at slightly above 260,000 is sustainable over the short run.
[...] look at the type of housing going up across the country. The National Association of Home Builders Eye on Housing blog notes a slowdown in the production of rental [...]
[...] of 365,000 in December to a more steady 277,000 rate in January. On a year-over-year basis, starts of multifamily units in properties with five or more units remain up 35%. Single-family starts were virtually unchanged in January at a 613,000 rate, up 0.8%from [...]
[...] For February of 2013, the Census Bureau’s preliminary estimate for starts in buildings with five or more apartments came in at 285,000 (at a seasonally adjusted annual rate). In the Census construction report, this shows up as less than a 1 percent increase from January, but the January number itself was revised upward by nearly 9 percent—so 285,000 is actually 9.6 percent higher than the preliminary starts rate for January originally reported in last month’s blog. [...]
[...] For February of 2013, the Census Bureau’s preliminary estimate for starts in buildings with five or more apartments came in at 285,000 (at a seasonally adjusted annual rate). In the Census construction report, this shows up as less than a 1 percent increase from January, but the January number itself was revised upward by nearly 9 percent—so 285,000 is actually 9.6 percent higher than the preliminary starts rate for January originally reported in last month’s blog. [...]