Over the last decade, new construction builds remain strong, but building permits are falling due to the mixed bag that is the current economy: fluctuating interest rates, high home prices, failing banks, and whether we are in a buyer’s or seller’s market.
To better analyze current trends, Point2 [1] used data from the U.S. Census Bureau [2] and the Bureau of Labor Statistics [3] to compile a report that details the evolution of housing, specifically permitting and construction, over the last decade in the 384 existing metropolitan areas.
According to Point2, by 2021, the number of residential permits issued at the national level more than doubled compared to 2012—however this number receded slightly in 2022. Also, the number of completed units has been on an uninterrupted upward path since 2012.
In 2012, about 830,000 residential building permits were issued valued at $140.5 billion—by 2022 the number of residential permits issued doubled to 1.65 million to a value of $374 billion.
In the decade between 2012 and 2022, an average of 2,971 homes were completed per day, while 3,513 permits were issued every day as well. By 2014 the annual number of building permits crossed the 1-million mark for the first time, a pace which did not stop until 2022. Although the number of housing starts, like the number of permits dropped in 2022, the number of completed units kept steadily increasing.
So where are these permits coming from? It turns out that three major states accounted for a third of new permits: California (118,090 permits), Florida (212,206 permits), and Texas (263,529 permits). And this is not a recent phenomenon; the three states have dominated building permit numbers for the last decade.
But at a metropolitan level, Dallas, Houston, and New York City reported the most permits in 2022.
Click here [4] to view the study in its entirety, including interactive graphics at state and metropolitan levels.