Meanwhile, construction of single-family homes increased 4.4 percent in June to 778,000, as home building rose 46.3 percent in the Northeast and 17.4 percent in the West. Builders have focused more on single-family homes this year, moving away from multifamily which dominated much of the building scene in recent years.
The housing boom of the mid-200s was producing above a 1.7 million home annual rate, but that fell below 600,000 as the housing bubble burst. The past year the rate has hovered between 1.1 million and 1.2 million.
“This morning’s report was quite upbeat,” Neil Shankar, U.S. regional economist at TD Economics, wrote in a research note. “Continued job creation coupled with rising wages and low interest rates bodes well for a broader rebound in housing demand as well as consumer spending.”
Completion of multifamily housing, which includes buildings with over five residential units, hit 386,000 in June, the highest number since 1989. In the highest seasonally-adjusted annual rate (SAAR) since Sept. 2008, builders completed work on almost 1.15 million homes. ##
(Graphic credit: housingwire)
