Building permits and housing starts both unexpectedly jumped nationwide in October, according to the latest data from the Census Bureau.
- Building Permits: Privately‐owned housing units authorized by building permits rose to 1.487M in October, up 1.1% from September and the second-highest level in the last five months.
- Housing Starts. Privately‐owned housing starts in October rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.372M in October, up 1.9% from last month and the highest level since July.
Beat The Street. Economists expected that permits would fall 1.4% and starts would rise a slight 0.3% in October.
Southern Dominance. The South continued to dominate the other three regions in both categories with 56.7% of the permits and 52.7% of all the housing starts.
- Single Family the South was even more dominate with 60.8% of all the permits and 57.8% of the starts.
- The West took the number two spot with 23.5% of all building permits followed by the Midwest (11.4%) and the Northeast (8.5%). The West also took the number two spot with 24.3% of all starts followed by the the Midwest (17.8%) and the Northeast (5.2%)
Housing Completions. Privately‐owned housing completions rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.41M in October, down 4.6% from last month and the first monthly drop since July.
- The South made up 58.7% of housing completions and was a whopping 63% of single-family housing completions.