HUD AND CENSUS BUREAU ANNOUNCE NEW RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY IN FEBRUARY

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 February 2015:

BUILDING PERMITS

Privately owned housing units authorized by building permits in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,092,000. This is 3.0 percent (±1.7%) above the revised January rate of 1,060,000, but is 7.7 percent (±2.0%) above the February 2014 estimate of 1,014,000. Single-family authorizations in February were at a rate of 620,000; this is 6.2 percent (±0.9%) below the revised January figure of

661,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 445,000 in February.

HOUSING STARTS

Privately owned housing starts in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 897,000. This is 17 percent (±9.5%)* below the revised January estimate of 1,081,000 and is 3.3 percent (±12.5%)* below the February rate of 928,000. Single-family housing starts in February were at a rate of 593,000; this is 14.9 percent (±10.0%)* below the revised January figure of 697,000. The February rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 297,000.

HOUSING COMPLETIONS

Privately owned housing completions in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 850,000. This is 13.8 percent (±9.0%)* below the revised January estimate of 986,000 and is 1.8 percent (±11.7%)* below the February 2014 rate of 866,000. Single-family housing completions in February were at a rate of 595,000; this is 12.1 percent (±10.0%)* below the revised January rate of 677,000. The February rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 236,000.

New Residential Construction data for March 2015 will be released on Thursday, April 16, 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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