Housing Starts Increased Almost 31% Since 2015
Economic expansion and pent up demand are just a few of the reasons that February reported a significant increase in housing starts for new homes compared to new home starts in February, 2015. Single-family home starts increased by 7.2% – the highest increase since November, 2007. New homes being built by builders throughout the United States are getting successfully completed at an increased rate of 8.1%, bringing the average annual rate of completed single-family homes under construction to 736,000. This 6.1% completion rate is the highest it has been since November, 2008.
The progress of the new construction of new homes remains unchanged in February with single-family home
building permits remaining essentially unchanged at a rate of 731,000 per year. This range for building permits for single-family homes has been the same for 4 months. In the southern region, single-family starts remained steady with steeper increases in the Midwest and West regions nationally.
Other factors which are greatly helping housing recover are low interest rates which are starting to drop again, increases in employment – the construction industry is actually showing a need for constrution employees, and more building by single-family home builders. New home inventory fluctuates between a 4 and 6 month supply which shows a strong demand by home buyers.
According to statistics by the National Association of Home Builders, shows that first-time homeowners are 8 times more likely to buy an existing home over a new home. However, with the lack of existing homes for sale, home buyers are marching into the new home market to discover the availability of new homes for sale, which is excellent news for builders. Introducing a typical existing home buyer to new homes and the process of building a new home is great public relations for local builders, leading to more word-of-mouth advertising and referral sales.