Eye On Housing
Like much of the nation, the top single-family home building metros are facing elevated jobless rates. Reported below are the top 10 metro areas by number of single-family permits authorized over the first six months of 2020. Combined, these top building markets issued 30.6% of all single-family permits through June.
| Metropolitan Statistical Area | Single-family Permits: June (Units #YTD, NSA) |
| Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX |
20,614 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | 19,744 |
| Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ | 13,561 |
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | 11,828 |
| Austin-Round Rock, TX | 9,526 |
| Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC | 8,289 |
| Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL | 7,770 |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL | 6,728 |
| Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN | 6,658 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 6,458 |
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic induced recession, unemployment in these metro areas skyrocketed along with the rest of the country. The table below shows the monthly unemployment rates (seasonally adjusted) for the top 10 single-family permit issuing metropolitan areas.
| Metropolitan Statistical Area | Jan-20 | Feb-20 | Mar-20 | Apr-20 | May-20 | Jun-20 | Jul-20 |
| Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX | 3.74 | 3.80 | 5.58 | 14.71 | 14.18 | 9.42 | 9.27 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | 3.06 | 3.06 | 4.60 | 13.08 | 12.55 | 7.92 | 7.25 |
| Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ | 3.89 | 3.87 | 5.30 | 12.67 | 8.47 | 9.53 | 10.09 |
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | 2.93 | 2.94 | 4.56 | 12.99 | 10.09 | 8.27 | 8.20 |
| Austin-Round Rock, TX | 2.65 | 2.59 | 3.80 | 12.57 | 11.60 | 7.04 | 6.45 |
| Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC | 3.27 | 3.27 | 4.01 | 13.03 | 13.24 | 8.04 | 9.01 |
| Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL | 2.86 | 2.83 | 4.45 | 13.78 | 12.45 | 8.78 | 9.93 |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL | 2.68 | 2.76 | 4.35 | 17.32 | 21.35 | 15.94 | 15.08 |
| Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN | 2.49 | 2.51 | 2.65 | 15.58 | 11.40 | 9.82 | 9.46 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 2.91 | 2.84 | 3.24 | 10.13 | 9.05 | 8.10 | 7.73 |
In April and May, all of these metropolitan areas had double digit unemployment rates with the highest recorded in Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford (FL) metro area. As of July, Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford (FL) and Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale (AZ) still had double digit unemployment rates, while the other metro areas have recorded rates below the recession highs. The lowest unemployment rate was recorded in Austin-Round Rock (TX) metro area at 6.45%, which is lower than the national unemployment rate of 10.2%.
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