New Residential Building Permits by Region: April 2002

The total number of residential permits issued nationwide during the first four months of this year was 3.0% greater than during the first-third of 2001, according to preliminary estimates coming out of the U.S. Commerce Department. Momentum in the nation's largest-volume home building state - Florida - was particularly strong over the early months of 2002. And permit volume in "runner-up" Texas was ahead 3.8% when compared to a year ago. But California was going in the opposite direction, recording a decline of 3.2% in permit activity over the first four months of 2002.

Unit-permit totals for all seven regions in the Northeast, Midwest, and Southern quadrants of the country were higher during January-April of this year than over the first four months of 2001. But both the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast sub-regions of the West saw permit totals fall well-below year-ago totals during the first-third of 2002.

The number of residential units permitted for construction in the first-third of this year was greater than during the first four months of 2001 in 36 states. Among the 14 states recording over-the-year losses, the largest decreases (in percentage terms) were in Kansas (-30.7%), Nevada (-25.8%), Hawaii (-11.1%), Arizona (-10.8%), Idaho (-10.0%) and Colorado (-9.3%).

However, these losses were more than offset by the solid double-digit over-the-year gains recorded in a total of 19 states - although it's still a bit too early in the year to know if the increases for relatively low-volume states will really be representative of trends for the year as a whole. Notable trends among relatively high-volume home building states were gains in Minnesota (+31.9%), Florida (+18.5%), Alabama (+16.9%), Maryland (+10.5%) and South Carolina (+10.2%).