HUD AND CENSUS BUREAU ANNOUNCE NEW RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY IN AUGUST

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 August 2015:

BUILDING PERMITS

Privately owned housing units authorized by building permits in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,170,000. This is 3.5 percent (±1.4%) above the revised July rate of 1,130,000, and is 12.5 percent (±1.9%) above the August 2014 estimate of 1,040,000. Single-family authorizations in August were at a rate of 699,000; this is 2.8 percent (±1.7%) above the revised July figure of 680,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 440,000 in August.

HOUSING STARTS

Privately owned housing starts in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,126,000. This is 3.0 percent (±11.3%)* below the revised July estimate of 1,161,000 and is 16.6 percent (±10.4%)* above the August 2014 rate of 966,000. Single-family housing starts in August were at a rate of 739,000; this is 3.0 percent (±9.5%)* below the revised July figure of 762,000. The August rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 381,000.

HOUSING COMPLETIONS

Privately owned housing completions in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 935,000. This is 6.1 percent (±12.5%)* below the revised July estimate of 996,000 and is 3.3 percent (±12.7%)* above the August 2014 rate of 905,000. Single-family housing completions in August were at a rate of 627,000; this is 1.6 percent (±11.0%)* above the revised July rate of 636,000. The August rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 283,000.

New Residential Construction data for September 2015 will be released on Thursday, October 20, 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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