New Residential Construction

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Length of Time

Authorization to Start

These tables contain annual statistics on the length of time from authorization of construction to start of new private residential buildings in permit-issuing places. Data are obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of Construction. Since the Survey of Construction is designed to collect data on a monthly basis, it can only be determined in what month a building was authorized or started rather than the precise day. For example, buildings started on August 1 or August 31 would be counted as starting in August. Because of this, it is assumed for this supplement that a building authorized and started in the same month was started immediately after the permit was issued. That is, we use zero number of months in the computation. Buildings started in the first month after authorization took the full month to begin; those started in the second month after authorization took 2 months; those started in the third month after authorization took 3 months, and so on. Also, since many jurisdictions allow the ground breaking (start) to occur before the final permit is issued, there may be a negative number of months from authorization to start. For instance, projects where the building started in the month prior to the final permit use -1 in the computation of the length of time.

Average Length of Time (1976 - present) PDF [18KB] XLS [41KB]

Percent Distribution of Buildings Started by Number of Months from Authorization XLS [25KB]

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Start to Completion

These tables contain annual statistics on the length of time from start of construction to completion of new private residential buildings. Data are obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of Construction. Since the Survey of Construction is designed to collect data on a monthly basis, it can only be determined in what month a building was started or completed rather than the precise day. For example, buildings started on August 1 or August 31 would be counted as starting in August. Because of this, it is assumed for this supplement that a building started and completed in the same month took a full month to build. Buildings completed in the first month after start took 1.5 months; those completed in the second month after start took 2.5 months; those completed in the third month after start took 3.0 months; those completed in the fourth month after start took 4.0 months, and so on..

Average Length of Time (1971 - present) PDF [19KB] XLS [44KB]

Percent Distribution of Buildings Completed by Number of Months from Start XLS [25KB]

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Time Series/Trend Charts: Create your own customizable time series

Announcements

11/17/22 - Notice of methodology change: Beginning with the January New Residential Construction release on February 16, 2023, the Building Permits survey will change its target universe from the current 2014 basis to an annually updated universe. This change will allow for more accurate and quicker coverage when jurisdictions change from not issuing building permits to issuing them. For additional details on this change and the impact on New Residential Construction, see our 2023 Methodology Change FAQs.

5/02/22 - Final annual estimates for 2021 of housing units authorized by building permits for the U.S. and by Census Region, Census Division, state, metropolitan area, county, and permit-issuing place are now available. Revised monthly estimates for the U.S. and Census Regions for the prior year which have been "benchmarked" to the final annual totals are also released.

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