The April Residential Construction Report from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development shows mixed results in April. Permits fell off slightly from March levels and housing starts showed some improvement. Construction permits were issued at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.416 million units. This is 1.5 percent fewer than the 1.437 million units permitted in March. Single-family permits rose 3.1 percent to 855,000 units and multifamily permits fell 9.7 percent to a rate of 502,000 units Permitting overall was down 21.1 percent from the 1.795 million level in April 2022 and those issued for single-family homes and multifamily units were down 21.2 percent and 23.0 percent respectively. Any improvement in housing starts was blurred by a substantial revision to the March numbers. Originally reported at an annual rate of 1.420 million units, an 0.8 percent increase, the rate of starts was downgraded to 1.371 million in today’s report. This accounted for the 2.2 percent gain in April to 1.401 million, the highest rate thus far in 2023. A similar revision to single-family starts (861,000 units became 833,000) made the 846,000-unit rate in April a gain of 1.6 percent. Multifamily starts jumped 5.2 percent to 542,000 units. Starts were down 22.3 percent from a year earlier, single-family starts lagged by 28.1 percent, and multifamily starts were 11.7 percent lower. [housingchartall]
