The Construction Season Gets Off to a Weak Start
March is the beginning of the construction season for builders in much of the country. Unfortunately, as we look back at this last month, we’re not getting a very positive outlook on this year’s residential construction.
According to the data recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, permits and housing starts fell from February levels, far below what analysts were anticipating. Permits for the month came out to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,086,000, which comes in 7.7% shy of the February estimate. This also represents the fourth consecutive month of declines in permits. Here in the West, there was a decline in permitting of 15.4% over the previous month, and 6.1% over March of 2015.
There was, however, an improvement in housing completions last month. This figure came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,061,000, representing a 3.5% improvement over February and a 31.6% increase over March of 2015.
