HUD AND CENSUS BUREAU ANNOUNCE NEW RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY IN JANUARY

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Census Bureau jointly announced the following new residential construction statistics for January 2015:

BUILDING PERMITS

Privately owned housing units authorized by building permits in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,053,000. This is 0.7 percent (±0.6%) below the revised December rate of 1,060,000, but is 8.1 percent (±2.0%) above the January 2014 estimate of 974,000. Single-family authorizations in January were at a rate of 654,000; this is 3.1 percent (±0.9%) below the revised December figure of

675,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 372,000 in January.

HOUSING STARTS

Privately owned housing starts in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,065,000. This is 2.0 percent (±10.4%)* below the revised December estimate of 1,087,000, but is 18.7 percent (±14.5%) above the January 2014 rate of 897,000. Single-family housing starts in January were at a rate of 678,000; this is 6.7 percent (±10.6%)* below the revised December figure of 727,000. The January rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 381,000.

HOUSING COMPLETIONS

Privately owned housing completions in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 930,000. This is 1.3 percent (±7.4%)* above the revised December estimate of 918,000 and is 9.4 percent (±10.4%)* above the January 2014 rate of 850,000. Single-family housing completions in January were at a rate of 649,000; this is 2.3 percent (±7.0%)* below the revised December rate of 664,000. The January rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 274,000.

New Residential Construction data for February 2015 will be released on Tuesday, March 17, 2015, at 8:30 A.M. EDT.

EXPLANATORY NOTES

In interpreting changes in the statistics in this release, note that month-to-month changes in seasonally adjusted statistics often show movements which may be irregular. It may take two months to establish an underlying trend for building permit authorizations, 4 months for total starts, and six months for total completions. The statistics in this release are estimated from sample surveys and are subject to sampling variability as well as nonsampling error including bias and variance from response, nonreporting, and undercoverage. Estimated relative standard errors of the most recent data are shown in the tables. Whenever a statement such as "2.5 percent (±3.2%) above" appears in the text, this indicates the range (-0.7 to +5.7 percent) in which the actual percent change is likely to have occurred. All ranges given for percent changes are 90-percent confidence intervals and account only for sampling variability. If a range does not contain zero, the change is statistically significant. If it does contain zero, the change is not statistically significant; that is, it is uncertain whether there was an increase or decrease. The same policies apply to the confidence intervals for percent changes shown in the tables. On average, the preliminary seasonally adjusted estimates of total building permits, housing starts and housing completions are revised about three percent or less. Explanations of confidence intervals and sampling variability can be found on our web site listed above.

* 90% confidence interval includes zero. The Census Bureau does not have sufficient statistical evidence to conclude that the actual change is different from zero.

Read more about today's release of housing construction activity (www.census.gov/construction/nrc/).

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