New Home Starts & Permits Rise Above the 1 Million Mark

The southern region of the United States saw a 38.5% increase in housing starts during the month of November to 558,000 new construction building starts, while the overall number of new home starts and permits skyrocketed to above 1 million in November, 2013.  This is the first time, except for one increase in the spring of 2013, that new housing starts and permits have risen above 1 million since 2008.  The South’s 558,000 housing starts also breaks a record of new home starts since February, 2008.

In the real estate market, single-family home starts rose to 727,000, which was a 20.8% increase from October, 2013, and multi-family home starts rose 26.8% to 364,000.  Single-family home starts have not increased that dramatically since December of 2007, and for this increase to happen during one of the typically slower real estate months of the year – November – is a record in and of itself.

Elsewhere in the United States, the Midwest saw a 41.7% rise in single-family home starts, the most since August, 2007.  All regions in America all saw increase in new construction starts and permits for the building of new single-family homes.  The multi-family home market was a huge component in the above 1 million mark of home starts and permits, but overall, the real estate market has been a huge driver for the U.S. economy with the decrease in interest rates and the semi-flexible standards for new home construction loans.

After the government shutdown in October, the Fed’s meeting and report, at the end of September, and a slight stabilization of the “new norm” when it comes to higher interest rates; “on-the-fence buyers” have reentered the market and are starting to buy up the existing inventory.  This is reducing the amount of months of standing inventory in all regions of the United States.  The real estate market is actually turning more into a sellers’ market, drastically different from the buyers’ market and investors’ market it has been since the Recession.

Even though employment in the U.S. is sluggish to recover, the construction industry is actually experiencing a dearth in employment of contractors and subs for their jobs.  This has slowed down the production on new home construction projects because of a delay in getting quality workers to perform all of the contractor work during new home construction.  This is good news for those workers who had to change occupations while the construction industry sat idle.  Ramping back up new home construction production to pre-Recession levels will take time because of this lack of available contractors and sub-contractors.

This is good news for local builders in St. Tammany Parish, and Ron Lee Homes has been experiencing an uptick in the already busy schedule of new, custom homes for our buyers here in Mandeville, Covington, and Madisonville.  If you are interested in purchasing a new or custom home for sale in St. Tammany Parish, Contact Ron Lee Homes at 985-626-7619 or e-mail Info@RonLeeHomes.com.