The National Association of Home Builders released their June report—
· Housing starts were down 2% to an annual pace of 1.56 million units. Single-family starts were down 8.1%.
· Housing permits were down 0.6% last month and single-family permits were down 8%.
· Housing units authorized, but not yet started, are up nearly 16% year over year.
· Completions were down 4.6% last month to an annualized pace of 1.37 million units. Single-family completions were down 4.1%.
The NAHB Housing Market Index for July dropped by 12 points to 55 from June. The Chairman of the NAHB said “production bottlenecks, rising home building costs and high inflation are causing many builders to halt construction because of land, construction, and financing exceeds the market value of the home.” The very last thing we need is home builders reducing the number of homes built as doing so will keep us in a housing supply crisis.