Source: census.gov
The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly announced the following new residential construction statistics for December 2013, and also calculated the yearly increase in building permits. Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 986,000. This is 3.0 percent below the revised November rate of 1,017,000, but is 4.6 percent above the December 2012 estimate of 943,000.
Single-family authorizations in December were at a rate of 610,000; this is 4.8 percent below the revised November figure of 641,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 350,000 in December.
An estimated 974,700 housing units were authorized by building permits in 2013. This is 17.5 percent above the 2012 figure
of 829,700.