Over the first seven months of 2020, total single-family permits issued year-to-date (YTD) nationwide reached 525,623. On a year-over-year (YoY) basis, this is an 5.8% increase over the July 2019 level of 496,726.

Year-to-date ending in July, single-family permits across the four regions ranged from an increase of 8.6% in the South to a decline of 1.7% in the Northeast. In multifamily permits, Midwest reported a 1.4% increase while the other three regions reported declines – Northeast (-6.0%), West (-5.1%), and South (-0.5%).

Between July 2019 YTD and July 2020 YTD, 35 states saw growth in single-family permits issued while 14 states and the District of Columbia registered a decline. Louisiana recorded no change during this time. South Dakota recorded the highest growth rate during this time at 35.9% from 1,508 to 2,050 while single-family permits in the District of Columbia declined by 41.0%, from 117 in 2019 to 69 in 2020. The 10 states issuing the highest number of single-family permits combined accounted for 61.6% of the total single-family permits issued.

Year-to-date, ending in July 2020, the total number of multifamily permits issued nationwide reached 270,338. This is 2.3% decline over the July 2019 level of 276,841.

Between July 2019 YTD and July 2020 YTD, 25 states recorded growth while 25 states and the District of Columbia recorded a decline in multifamily permits. North Dakota led the way with a sharp rise (248.6%) in multifamily permits from 218 to 760, while New Hampshire reported the largest decline of 54.1% from 577 to 265. The 10 states issuing the highest number of multifamily permits combined accounted for 63.9% of the multifamily permits issued.

At the local level, below are top 10 metro areas which issued the highest number of single-family permits.

For multifamily permits, below are the top 10 local areas which issued the highest number of permits:

Tags: home building, multifamily, single-family, state and local markets, state permits