2/16/24 - With the January 2024 New Residential Construction release on February 16, 2024, we are updating our current and historical excel tables from the .xls format to the new .xlsx format. In addition, the format of these tables will also be updated to meet current accessibility requirements. This will also reduce file sizes and provide access to more recent Microsoft Excel features for data users. For additional information on this change and a list of files that are being updated please see the History File Update announcement.
5/01/23 - Final annual estimates for 2022 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.
2/16/23 - Notice of methodology change: With the January New Residential Construction release on February 16, 2023, the Building Permits survey has changed its target universe from at 2014 basis to an annually updated universe. This change allows 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.
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.
2/24/22 - Notice of methodology change: With the January 2022 data month, the monthly Building Permits Survey design has changed from a representative sample to a cut-off sample. This change allows complete local and county data on new housing units authorized by permits to be published monthly going forward. Initial summary level estimates for January 2022 were released with the New Residential Construction release on February 17, 2022. Complete local, County and State estimates were first released at www.census.gov/construction/bps/ on February 24, 2022. For additional details on this change and the impact on New Residential Construction, see our updated 2022 Methodology Change FAQs.
11/17/21 - Notice of methodology change: Beginning with the January 2022 New Residential Construction release on February 17, 2022, the monthly Building Permits Survey design will change from a representative sample to a cut-off sample. This change will allow complete local and county data on new housing units authorized by permits to be published on a monthly basis going forward. For additional details on this change and the impact on New Residential Construction, see our 2022 Methodology Change FAQs.
9/21/21 - Statement Regarding Natural Disasters: For information on the impact of natural disasters, including hurricanes, on the compilation of this report, please see the Natural Disaster FAQs.
8/18/20 - Statement Regarding COVID-19 Impact: Due to recent events surrounding COVID-19, many governments and businesses are operating on a limited capacity or have ceased operations completely. The Census Bureau has monitored response and data quality and determined estimates in this release meet publication standards. For more information on the compilation of this month's report, see COVID‐19 FAQs.
7/17/20 - Statement Regarding COVID-19 Impact: Due to recent events surrounding COVID-19, many governments and businesses are operating on a limited capacity or have ceased operations completely. The Census Bureau has monitored response and data quality and determined estimates in this release meet publication standards. For more information on the compilation of this month's report, see COVID‐19 FAQs.
6/17/20 - Statement Regarding COVID-19 Impact: Due to recent events surrounding COVID-19, many governments and businesses are operating on a limited capacity or have ceased operations completely. The Census Bureau has monitored response and data quality and determined estimates in this release meet publication standards. For more information on the compilation of this month's report, see COVID‐19 FAQs.
5/19/20 - Statement Regarding COVID-19 Impact: Due to recent events surrounding COVID-19, many governments and businesses are operating on a limited capacity or have ceased operations completely. The Census Bureau has monitored response and data quality and determined estimates in this release meet publication standards. For more information on the compilation of this month's report, see COVID‐19 FAQs.
4/16/20 - Statement Regarding COVID-19 Impact: Due to recent events surrounding COVID-19, many governments and businesses are operating on a limited capacity or have ceased operations completely. The Census Bureau has monitored response and data quality and determined estimates in this release meet publication standards. For more information on the compilation of this month's report, see COVID‐19 FAQs.
11/14/19 - Beginning in November 2019, SOC historic tables will be available only in Excel format. PDF versions will no longer be produced.
7/17/19 - With this release, unadjusted estimates of housing units authorized by building permits for January through December 2018 have been revised. Also, seasonally adjusted estimates of housing units authorized by building permits have been revised back to January 2013. All revised estimates are available on our website.
2/28/19 - The U.S. Census Bureau updated its 2019 economic indicator release calendar to include January-March 2019 releases following the recent lapse in federal funding. Please visit our Breifing Room for the full schedule.
2/27/19 - The U.S. Census Bureau continues to update its 2019 economic indicator release calendar in coordination with other agencies and the Office of Management and Budget to address the impacts of the recent lapse in federal funding. We will provide additional updated release dates as soon as they become available. Please visit our webpage at www.census.gov/economic-indicators.
2/6/19 - Rescheduled December 2018 release dates have been posted! The U.S. Census Bureau continues to update its 2019 economic indicator release calendar in coordination with other agencies and the Office of Management and Budget to address the impacts of the recent lapse in federal funding. We will provide additional updated release dates as soon as they become available. Please visit our webpage at www.census.gov/economic-indicators.
1/28/19 - The U.S. Census Bureau is updating its 2019 economic indicator release calendar in coordination with other agencies and the Office of Management and Budget to address the impacts of the recent lapse in federal funding. We will provide the updated release schedule as soon as it becomes available. Please visit our webpage at www.census.gov/economic-indicators.
5/16/18 - With this release, unadjusted estimates of housing units authorized by building permits for January through December 2017 have been revised. Also, seasonally adjusted estimates of housing units authorized by building permits have been revised back to January 2012, and seasonally adjusted estimates of housing units authorized but not started, started, under construction, and completed have been revised back to January 2013. All revised estimates are available on our website. With each April release, seasonally adjusted data will now be revised for an additional five years beyond the revision period for unadjusted data. Research has shown that this revision span should produce more reliable seasonally adjusted time series.
4/17/18 - Receive the latest updates on the nation's key economic indicators by downloading the FRED App for both Apple and Android devices. FRED, the signature database of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, now incorporates the Census Bureau's 13 economic indicators.
2/16/18 - With the April 2018 release, seasonally adjusted estimates of housing units authorized by building permits will be revised back to January 2012, and seasonally adjusted estimates of housing units authorized but not started, started, under construction, and completed will be revised back to January 2013. With each April release, seasonally adjusted data will now be revised for an additional five years beyond the revision period for unadjusted data. Research has shown that this revision span should produce more reliable seasonally adjusted time series.
2/16/17 - With the January 2017 New Residential Construction release on February 16, 2017, the presentation of the release has changed. The text portion of the release was removed from Excel. The text and tables were reformatted and are available as a PDF, with the tables available separately in Excel.
1/19/17 - With the January 2017 New Residential Construction release on February 16, 2017, the presentation of the release will change. The text portion of the release will be removed from Excel. The text and tables will be reformatted and will be available as a PDF, with the tables available separately in Excel. A preview of the new files is available: PDFExcel.
6/16/15 - Due to a processing error, the Year to Date estimates for Housing Units Authorized by Building Permits originally published in Table 1 of the May 2015 New Residential Construction release were incorrect. A corrected release was posted before 11:30am on June 16, 2015, to replace the original version.
4/16/15 - Beginning with the release of April 2015 data on May 19, 2015, estimates of housing units authorized, but not started, are available on a seasonally adjusted basis as well as a not seasonally adjusted basis. Historic seasonally adjusted data are available back to January 1999 on our historical data page.
1/21/15 - Beginning with the release of the January 2015 data on February 18, 2015, the building permit data will reflect a small increase in the universe of permit-issuing places and will be labeled as the 2014 Universe. These changes will have no effect on the estimates of new housing starts and completions because the increase in the permit universe is offset by a decrease in the universe of areas where permits are not required. Building permit data for 2014 for both universes will be shown in Table 1. New Privately-Owned Housing Units Authorized in Permit-Issuing Places of the January 2015 press release.
1/1/15 - The U.S. Census Bureau updated its application programming interface (API) with monthly and quarterly economic indicators. The API allows developers to combine Census Bureau statistics with other data sets to create tools for research on a variety of other topics.
4/16/14 - The September/October 2013 New Residential Construction release that will be issued at 8:30am on November 26, 2013, will include the first release of estimates of housing units authorized by building permits in both September and October 2013.However, the lapse in federal funding affected the data collection schedule for the Survey of Construction, the source of data on new housing units started and completed. Accurate data collection for September and October 2013 could not be completed in time for the November 26 release. Data on housing units started and completed in September, October, and November 2013 will be released on December 18, 2013.For more information on the October 2013 report, please see our October 2013 NRC FAQs.
10/16/13 - The U.S. Census Bureau announced revisions to its release calendar for the 2013 economic indicators that have been delayed because of the recent lapse in federal funding.New Residential Construction (NRC) data for September 2013 will be released with the October data release, which has been rescheduled to November 26, 2013.Data collection for estimates of housing starts and completions occurs in the field with resources that are shared with other critical surveys. Full data collection will occur in November but will require extra time; hence, the scheduled releases are much later than originally scheduled in November. Normal data collection and data releases will resume with the release of the November data in December. Building permit estimates for September have been collected but cannot be published without the release of the remainder of the data in the NRC release.
1/1/13 - 2013 Economic Indicator Webinar Series Discover the U.S. Census Bureau's economic statistics through the 2013 Economic Indicator Webinar Series. Each of the 13 economic indicators in this webinar series will provide an in-depth description of how the critical economic indicator data are collected and how you can access and use these statistics. Sessions include construction, housing, international trade, retail trade and more.
11/20/12 - For information on Hurricane Sandy's effect on the compilation of the October 2012 report, please see our Hurricane Sandy FAQs.
1/1/12 - To receive the latest updates on the Nation's key economic indicators, download the America's Economy app for Apple and Android smartphones and tablets.
