Now that we’re two full weeks into 2018, some of the year-end data for 2017 is starting to trickle out.
One such report is the new home construction data from the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
And from the looks of it, 2017 ended up being a pretty decent year for new home construction.
On Thursday, the Census Bureau and HUD provided a look at the December data on new home construction, and the report shows that building permits, housing starts, and housing completions all increased in 2017.
According to the report, privately owned housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,192,000. That’s 8.2% below the revised November estimate of 1,299,000 and is 6% below the December 2016 rate of 1,268,000.
But despite December 2017 being a weaker month than the previous month or the same time period in 2016, housing starts for the year will still up over 2016.
The report shows that there were an estimated 1,202,100 housing units started in 2017. That’s up 2.4% from the 2016 figure of 1,173,800.
Housing completions and building permits both turned in stronger Decembers, leading to even greater yearly increases over 2016.
Privately owned housing completions in December came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,177,000, which is 2.2% above the revised November estimate of 1,152,000 and 7.4% above the December 2016 rate of 1,096,000.
According to the report, there were an estimated 1,152,300 housing units completed in 2017, which is up 8.7% from the 2016 total of 1,059,700.
Building permits were also up in December.
The report shows that privately owned housing units authorized by building permits in December came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,302,000. That’s actually down slightly (0.1%) from the revised November rate of 1,303,000, but 2.8% above the December 2016 rate of 1,266,000.
For the year, there were an estimated 1,263,400 housing units authorized by building permits in 2017. That’s up 4.7% from the 2016 figure of 1,206,600.
