Groundbreaking rose by 9.8% to an annual start of 1.17 million units adjusted seasonally as per the Commerce Department announcement this Friday.
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Further, May’s starts were revised up to a 1.07 million-unit rate from the initially reported 1.04 million-unit pace. Starts on buildings with five or more units shot up by 28.6% in June, to a (seasonally adjusted, annual) rate of 476,000. Permits for buildings with five units or more increased to their highest level since January 1990.
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,343,000, which is 7.4 percent above the revised May rate of 1,250,000 and 30 percent above the June 2014 estimate of 1,033,000.
Overall, multifamily data is an important factor in the number of starts, but single-family homes are considered a more telling indicator of economic stability. Builder confidence in this sector hit a level of 60 in July, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. June’s reading was also revised up one point to a level of 60.
“The multifamily gains this month are encouraging and show that the millennial generation continues to be drawn to the rental market”, said NAHB Chairman Tom Woods, a home builder from Blue Springs, Mo. The nation’s home ownership rate is now at a 20-year low of 63.7%, and first-time buyers have consistently comprised a smaller share of the market than they have historically.
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Trulia’s Chief Economist, Selma Hepp, dug deeper beyond the top-line numbers in the June housing starts and permits, and she drew some compelling conclusions and questions about where things are going in the second half of 2015.
