New Home Construction is Slowing Down

Here is new home construction data from the National Association of Home Builders for the month of July. Higher mortgage rates are definitely slowing down the construction industry. We need about 1.7 million units built yearly to keep up with new household formations and the rebuilding of tear-down homes.

· Housing starts were down nearly 10% from June to an annualized pace of1.45 million units.
· Starts are down 8% from a year ago.
· Single-family starts dropped by 10% last month too from June to an annualized pace of 916k units and these starts are down 18.5% from a year ago.
· Housing permits were down 1% from June to an annualized pace of 1.67 million units.
· Single-family permits dropped 4% last month to an annualized pace of 928k units which is down 12% from last year.
· Housing units permitted but not started are up 18% year over year as builders can’t keep up with demand.
· Completions were down 1% last month to an annualized pace of 1.4 million units.