on new residential construction for July 2020, posting a 22.6 percent increase in housing starts at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.496 million units.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cToday\u2019s new residential construction report from the Census Bureau showed a stronger-than-anticipated reading for July, as well as upward revisions for May and June,\u201d said Doug Duncan, chief economist at Fannie Mae, in a statement.<\/p>\n
New privately-owned housing starts were 4.7 percent higher than the same month last year. When broken down by housing type, single-family starts climbed 8.2 percent above revised June estimates to 940,000 units, while multi-family starts surged 58.4 percent month-over-month to 547,000 units.<\/p>\n
Fannie Mae economists believe spring construction delays caused by the onset of the pandemic and subsequent statewide lockdowns likely caused the jump in multi-family starts. \u201c<\/span>We still expect a comparatively weaker path over the remainder of the year for multifamily construction relative to single-family, as the current list of projects in the planning pipeline runs its course,\u201d continued Duncan.<\/span><\/p>\nBuilding permits, an indicator of future housing starts, rose 9.4 percent over July 2019 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,495,000. Single-family home permits went up by 17.0 percent from June to July \u2014 \u201cthe <\/span>second highest level since 2007<\/span>,\u201d noted Duncan, who anticipates that construction activity will continue at a brisk pace throughout August.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHousing completions experienced a boost of 3.6 percent month-over-month and 1.7 percent year-over-year to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,280,000. Single-family housing completions, which stood at 909,000, far outpaced completions for units in multi-family buildings at a rate of 364,000.<\/p>\n
With mortgage rates expected to remain low and a dwindling supply of existing homes for sale, builders are continuing to feed the nation\u2019s appetite for newly-built residences.<\/p>\n
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