March 2021 Residential Construction Report – Census Bureau

This time last year many states and communities across the world went into a lockdown halting business and taking an extreme toll on the economy. Since then we have seen a tremendous boom in the single-family housing market and a corresponding increase in the price of materials due to supply shortages. Many projects that were viable before the lockdowns and changes in material prices are no longer viable. A shortage in the supply of new projects has created competition for construction companies all around. 

Since this time last year we have seen a 35.6% increase in single-family housing permits and 19.2% increase in permits for residential development projects. From February ‘21 we have seen a 4.6% increase in housing permits suggesting that the single-family housing boom is still ongoing. We continue to see a drop in the number of permits sought by developers month over month since January of this year, down 3.6%. Looking at the units approved for construction but not started we see similar increases in both the single family and residential development markets from this time last year. 

This number of approved but not started projects has steadily climbed month over month and it is most likely due to restrictions in place to combat Covid-19. When we look at the number of housing starts we see a 40.7% increase in the number of single-family starts and a 26.9% increase in the number of residential developments started compared to March 2020. The delays due to restrictions and an increase in the demand for new housing has resulted in a 19.3% increase in the number of single-family homes under construction. However, residential development projects under construction are down 1.9% from this time last year.

We see a very large increase in the number of residential development completions, up 58.1% from last month compared to 5.3% increase in single-family housing completions. This may be due to developers taking advantage of the good weather and the distribution of vaccines to finish projects started prior to the shutdown.