US Building Permits & Starts Hit Lowest Level in History

The bottom callers must be exhausted by now. US Housing records continue to be smashed. Today, both US housing starts and building permits hit new historic lows. Records have beeen kept since 1959. Click here for the October report on Starts, Permits and Completions:

Firstly Building Permits:

Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 708,000. This is 12.0 percent below the revised September rate of 805,000 and is 40.1 percent below the revised October 2007 estimate of 1,182,000.

Single-family authorizations in October were at a rate of 460,000; this is 14.5 percent below the September figure of 538,000.

That beats the previous low of a SAAR of 709,000 set back in March 1975.


Housing starts:

Privately-owned housing starts in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 791,000. This is 4.5 percent below the revised September estimate of 828,000 and is 38.0 percent below the revised October 2007 rate of 1,275,000.

Single-family housing starts in October were at a rate of 531,000; this is 3.3 percent below the September figure of 549,000.

That beats the previous low of a SAAR of 798,000 in January 1991.


Completions:

Privately-owned housing completions in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,043,000. This is 10.2 percent below the revised September estimate of 1,161,000 and is 25.6 percent below the revised October 2007 rate of 1,401,000.

Single-family housing completions in October were at a rate of 760,000; this is 7.7 percent below the September figure of 823,000.

Completions have not yet hit record lows but remember that completions lag starts so you can expect them to go quite a bit lower in the coming months. didn't hear any bottom calling today, maybe they've finally given up?