Recent Trends In New Residential Permits for 2000’s Top 25 Metro Areas

Seven of 2000's top ten areas (in terms of sheer volume of permitted new residential construction) were able to improve upon their year-earlier totals during the first six months of 2001. Atlanta remains — by a margin of more than 47% over its nearest competitor so far this year — the nation's leading volume metro area for home building. And 5.5% more permits were issued for new home construction in the metro Atlanta market during the first half of this year than over the first six months of 2000, so momentum has yet to wane. Among the rest of 2000's top ten, only the Charlotte, Orlando, and Phoenix metro areas lost ground through June 2001 compared to the first six months of last year.

Among the 15 metropolitan areas that made up the balance of 2000's "Top 25" home building markets, nine recorded more housing permits during January-June 2001 than over the comparable period last year. However, four metropolitan areas — Austin, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Minneapolis — registered steep declines of more than 10% in permit activity, according to preliminary data through June of this year. Despite electricity shortages, almost all of California's metro areas continued to record solid gains in permit volume through the first six months of 2001. And in the rest of the country, two areas — Raleigh-Durham (+15.0% through the first half of 2001) and Portland (+1.7%) — are on the comeback trail this year after recording steep declines in permit activity between 1999 and 2000.

It's noteworthy that five Florida areas that were among the "Top 50" residential markets during 2000, based on permit volume, have recorded strong enough growth through June of this year to make them contenders for 2001's "Top 25" list: Fort Myers (+41.8%), Jacksonville (+19.6%), Fort Lauderdale (+13.6%), Sarasota-Bradenton (+14.0%), and Miami (+22.6%). A couple of other metro areas with impressive permit volume and strong growth through six months of 2001 are San Antonio (+19.4%) and Kansas City (+13.7%).

On the whole, permit gains in the major metropolitan areas of the country have held up well so far this year — well enough to keep the nation's total permit volume almost 3% ahead of its year-ago total. By the end of 2001, however, we'd expect to see overall permit volume decline — if only slightly — from the exceptionally high total recorded during 2000.

Economic Indicators Index (Jun. 2001):

Building Materials Price Inflation - June

Housing Starts - June

Consumer Confidence by Region - June

New Residential Building Permits by Region - June

Recent Trends in New Residential Permits for 2000's Top 25 Metro Areas