The number of housing starts trended up in October, according to a report published by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Housing starts increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.29 million during the month, representing an increase 13.7 percent higher than the revised September rate of 1.225 million, with single-family home starts increasing 5.3 percent. However, the rate of October housing starts this year was 2.9 percent lower than the October 2016 rate.
Three of the country’s four regions saw growth in housing activity in October, including the Northeast (42.2 percent), the Midwest (18.4 percent) and the South (17.2 percent). Meanwhile, the West was the only region to experience a decline in activity, which fell by 3.7 percent from the previous month.
New building permits increased by 5.9 percent in October to 1.297 million, which is 0.9 percent higher than October 2016. Multifamily residences accounted for most of the uptick while single-family building permits increased 1.9 percent.
The seasonally-adjusted annual rate for housing completions in October was 1.232 million, up 12.6 percent from the revised September estimate and 15.5 percent higher than the October 2016 rate.
The report includes explanatory notes detailing how the reported statistics are compiled and certain limitations that should be taken into consideration when interpreting the findings.
“In interpreting changes in the statistics in this release, note that month-to-month changes in seasonally adjusted statistics often show movements which may be irregular,” the report states. “It may take three months to establish an underlying trend for building permit authorizations, six months for total starts, and five months for total completions. The statistics in this release are estimated from sample surveys and are subject to sampling variability as well as non-sampling error including bias and variance from response, non-reporting and under-coverage.”