May 2022 Residential Construction – US Census Bureau
New residential construction report for May 2022 from the United States Census Bureau reveals a large decrease in both single family and multi-family building permits from last month. A total decrease in permits by -7.0% from last month is a souring signal for home builders, however permits did increase year over year by +0.2%. Single family homes have fallen -5.5% from April 2022 while multi-family units have fallen -10.0%. From May 2021 single family homes are down -7.9% while multi-family are up +19.8%. This suggests that while investors have been coming back to the market, there once again are rising concerns over profitability at current rates. Decreases in single family homes suggest that the large wave of buyers from 2020 and 2021 are starting to exit the market.
Among units authorized but not started we see a total increase from last month of +0.7%. From May 2021 however we see a large rise in permitted but not started construction, +14.1%. Month to month we see no change in single family market permits not started , when compared to multi-family units we see similar low levels of change, +1.6%. Over the one year period however we see a large increase in structures permitted but not started, 14.1% total and 29.6% for multi-family units. This increase is specific to multi-family units as the single family market has only seen a change of +3.4% from last year.
Units started decreased by -14.4% from last month and -3.5% from last year. These changes were seen most in the multi-family market where a decrease of -26.8% from last month and a -3.3% change from last year were seen. In the single family market there was a decrease in starts by -9.2% from last month, and a -5.3% decrease from last year. Houses under construction for May 2022 did not move substantially from month to month with total units seeing a +0.4% increase, single family homes under construction seeing 0.0% change and multi-family seeing +0.5%. However, over the one year period total units under construction increased by 24.3% with multi-family and single family seeing very similar increases at +24.3% and +24.5% respectively.
Total units completed from April 2022 to May 2022 increased +9.1% with single family units increasing +2.8% and multi-family units increasing by a whopping +33.2%. Over the one year period from May 2021 to May 2022 we see total units completed increasing by 9.3% with single family completions increasing +8.5% and multi-family completions increasing +11.5%.