While residential building activity on the national level has been soft, some metros are enjoying double-digit growth in single-family building permits, a key leading indicator in the construction market. Homebuilders generally don’t pull a residential building permit unless they are serious about building a house, so any increase in permit activity in a market area means more homes will be built there in the near future.
Nationally, single-family building permits are down -4.1% through June to 813,000 permits, but quite a few large metros are enjoying double-digit year-over-year (YOY) growth in single-family building permits. Several of the fastest-growing metros are in Florida — The Villages (+27.4%); Port St. Lucie (+20.8%); and Lakeland-Winter Haven (+20.4%).
All of these Florida markets are ahead of last year’s pace through June by at least 200 permits, and these markets, along with Tampa-St. Petersburg and Jacksonville, are in the Top 10 most active single-family homebuilding markets this year, when ranked by YOY increase in building permits. Lakeland-Winter Haven (+474) and Tampa-St. Petersburg (+409) hold the top two spots in EM’s ranking of more than 300 MSAs, available to subscribers at www.electricalmarketing.com. The Austin-Round Rock, TX (+384) and Phoenix-Scottsdale-Mesa, AZ (+254) MSAs, which frequently rank amongst the busiest residential building markets, are once again market leaders.
While the market for single-family homes is down this year on a national basis, next year may be better, as the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), Washington, DC, is forecasting a +3.8% gain for 2020 in this important segment of the construction market.
Click on the green button below to see data for all Metropolitan Statstistical Areas (MSA).