Home-building permits hit five-year peak | Katonah NY Homes
Permits to build new U.S. homes climbed 6.2% in October to the highest level in more than five years, mainly because of a big increase in applications to construct apartments and other multi-family dwellings.
Bloomberg Homes under construction stand at the Gale Ranch housing development by Shapell Homes in San Ramon, California.
The number of permits issued last month rose to an annual rate of 1.03 million from an upwardly revised 974,000 in September, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. Permits are a barometer of future demand for new housing, though not all applications lead to immediate construction
Applications for buildings of five units or more, a volatile sector that often seesaws, shot up 17%, with virtually all of the demand in the South and West.
Yet applications for single-family homes, — the bread and butter of the housing market — rose less than 1% compared to the prior month.
Investors traded up shares of the country’s three largest home builders Tuesday, making them among the 10 most-advancing stocks in the S&P 500 (SNC:SPX) . Shares of D.R. Horton (NYSE:DHI) and PulteGroup (NYSE:PHM) were recently up almost 3%, while shares of Lennar (NYSE:LEN) were up almost 4%.
Until the October increase, applications for new home-building permits had been softening since they hit a post-recession peak of 1 million in April. Higher mortgage rates trimmed permits to an annual rate of 918,000 in June, which marked a five-month low.
Most economists expect permits as well as construction on new homes to gradually increase over the next few years, however, on the expectation that the U.S. economy will continue to improve.
The Commerce report normally includes housing starts, or the number of properties on which construction just began , but the department said the government shutdown delayed collection of the data for both September and October. Starts for both months will be issued Dec. 18 when the government releases the housing-starts report for November.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/home-building-permits-hit-five-year-peak-2013-11-26
Bloomberg Homes under construction stand at the Gale Ranch housing development by Shapell Homes in San Ramon, California.
The number of permits issued last month rose to an annual rate of 1.03 million from an upwardly revised 974,000 in September, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. Permits are a barometer of future demand for new housing, though not all applications lead to immediate construction
Applications for buildings of five units or more, a volatile sector that often seesaws, shot up 17%, with virtually all of the demand in the South and West.
Yet applications for single-family homes, — the bread and butter of the housing market — rose less than 1% compared to the prior month.
Investors traded up shares of the country’s three largest home builders Tuesday, making them among the 10 most-advancing stocks in the S&P 500 (SNC:SPX) . Shares of D.R. Horton (NYSE:DHI) and PulteGroup (NYSE:PHM) were recently up almost 3%, while shares of Lennar (NYSE:LEN) were up almost 4%.
Until the October increase, applications for new home-building permits had been softening since they hit a post-recession peak of 1 million in April. Higher mortgage rates trimmed permits to an annual rate of 918,000 in June, which marked a five-month low.
Most economists expect permits as well as construction on new homes to gradually increase over the next few years, however, on the expectation that the U.S. economy will continue to improve.
The Commerce report normally includes housing starts, or the number of properties on which construction just began , but the department said the government shutdown delayed collection of the data for both September and October. Starts for both months will be issued Dec. 18 when the government releases the housing-starts report for November.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/home-building-permits-hit-five-year-peak-2013-11-26
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