The rate of residential building permit authorizations fell for the 10th consecutive month in November, the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development reported today, and was 31.3 percent below the November 2005 level.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of privately owned housing units authorized by building permits was about 1.51 million in November, compared with 1.55 million in October and 2.19 million in November 2005. The rate is a projection of a monthly total over a 12-month period, adjusted for seasonal fluctuations in activity.

Single-family building-permit authorizations reached a rate of about 1.14 million in November, which is 3.1 percent below the October figure and 33.3 percent below the November 2005 rate. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of about 299,000 in November, which is 2 percent below the October rate and 24.1 percent below the November 2005 rate.

Privately owned housing starts in November were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of about 1.59 million, which is 6.7 percent above the revised October estimate of 1.49 million and 25.5 percent below the November 2005 rate of 2.13 million.

Single-family housing starts in November were at a rate of about 1.28 million, which is 8.1 percent above the October rate. The November rate for units in buildings with five units or more was about 277,000, or 4.1 percent above the October rate and 7 percent below the November 2005 rate.

Privately owned housing completions in November were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of about 1.92 million, which is 0.2 percent below the revised October estimate and 0.3 percent above the November 2005 rate.

Single-family housing completions in November were at a rate of about 1.54 million, which is 1 percent below the October rate and 5.5 percent below the November 2005 rate. The November rate for units in buildings with five units or more was about 304,000, which is 5.3 percent below the October rate and 19.7 percent above the November 2005 rate.

The rate of new privately owned housing units under construction at the end of November fell for the sixth straight month to about 1.27 million, down 1.3 percent since October and down 8.8 percent compared to November 2005.

The agencies noted that month-to-month changes in seasonally adjusted statistics often show movements that may be irregular.

It can take four months to establish an underlying trend for building permit authorizations, five months for total starts, and six months for total completions, for example. The statistics in this release are estimated from sample surveys and are subject to sampling variability as well as nonsampling error, including bias and variance from response, nonreporting, and undercoverage, the agencies also reported.

On average, the preliminary seasonally adjusted estimates of total building permits, housing starts and housing completions are revised about 1 percent.

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