April 2022 Residential Construction – US Census Bureau

New privately-owned housing permits issued in April 2022 were down -3.2% from last month but up +3.1% from this time last year. This suggests that while housing demand is still growing the current peak may be behind us. Breaking down these numbers into single family and multi family we see single family housing decreasing in both periods, down -4.6% m/m and -3.6% y/y; multi-family builds have seen large growth of +16.3% y/y but a month over month decline of -0.6%. 

Total units authorized but not started has risen marginally from last month +0.7%; however, over the 1 year period housing units authorized but not started has risen +18% This suggests that home builders have been unable to keep up with the demand for new construction and new homes are being shelved for longer periods before breaking ground. Breaking this out into single family and multi-family we see again a marginal rise of +0.7% from last month in the single family market but an +8.5% increase in the 1 year period. This is mirrored in the multi-family market however we see no change from last month and a whopping +28.7% growth in multi-family units authorized but not started from last year.

Looking at the housing units started we see a similar trend. From last month total units started declined -0.2%. From last year we see a +14.6% rise suggesting that while builders have increased their capacity for projects it has not been enough to match the demand. In the single family market starts have dropped considerably down -7.3% from last month but up +3.7% from last year. Multi-family markets are telling a different story as starts have increased +16.8% from last month and +42.3% from last year.

Of houses under construction, those still under construction at the end of the period were up +1.6% from last month and 24.1% from last year. Single family and multi-family markets look similar with SF up +1% from last month and MF up +2.3%. From last year we see a +26% rise in the single family market and a 22.5% rise in the multi-family market.

 Completions are down around all residential markets. In total we see a -5.1% drop from last month, March 2022 and -8.6% decrease from March 2021. In the single family market this short term drop is -4.9% but over the one year period we see a marginal increase of +0.7%. In the multi-family market we see a large decrease in completions over the 1 year, -33.3% but a monthly decrease in line with the total and SF decreases, -6.6%