The number of single-family permits issued in 2023 declined by more than 60,000 compared with 2022, with the most significant declines occurring in the West (-9.7%) and Midwest (-14.4%). Of the 10 metros with the largest number of permits issued last year, only Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, Texas (+5%), Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, North Carolina-South Carolina (+1%), and Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida (+5%) experienced a growth in permit activity, according to an analysis on NAHB’s Eye on Housing blog.
Between December 2022 year-to-date and December 2023 year-to-date, except for Hawaii (+16.7%), Maryland (+8.7%), Nevada (+5.8%), West Virginia (+4.7%), Virginia (0.8%), North Carolina (0.7%), and Alabama (0.0%), all other states and the District of Columbia reported declines in single-family permits. The range of declines spanned 0.1% in Idaho to 59.4% in the District of Columbia. The ten states issuing the highest number of single-family permits combined accounted for 63.9% of the total single-family permits issued. Texas, the state with the highest number of single-family permits issued, declined 6.5% in the past 12 months; The succeeding highest state, Florida saw a decline of 6.9% while the next highest, North Carolina, posted an increase of 0.7%.
For 2023, the total number of multifamily permits issued nationwide reached 561,369. This is 17.4% below the December 2022 level of 679,898.
For multifamily permits, the percentage decline spanned 14.6% in the South region to 28.5% in the Northeast. The West declined by 15.2% and the Midwest declined by 21.1% in multifamily permits during this time.
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