Where Are Housing Starts Declining? (Interactive Map)

Abstract

After building permits for new single-family homes reached its highest pace since 2005 last year, new home starts appear to be slowing. Housing Starts Across the U.S. We examined the number of single-family home building permits issued in recent years in 384 metropolitan statistical areas across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Nationally, there were 377,713 new home permits issued from January through April, a decline of 1.7% from the same time period last year. No metro area has been as aggressive in recent years in issuing home-building permits than the Houston metro area, with 19,841 new home permits so far this year. "The trend is continuing this year with nearly 20,000 permits issued so far, which is over 10% more compared to the first four months of 2021." Ditch Your Day Job: How to Retire Early with Rental Income Ranking second was the Dallas-Fort Worth area, although the year-over-year growth in this MSA was less than 1%. Next were the Phoenix, Atlanta and Austin, Texas, metro areas, yet all three saw year-over-year drops in new building permits. Smaller metro areas saw the largest percentage increases and decreases in new home permits. With 610 building permits so far this year, the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton metro area in North Carolina had the highest percentage increase so far, with a 15,150% increase after having only four building permits issued during the first four months of 2021.