The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly announced the following new residential construction statistics for June 2011:BUILDING PERMITS

• Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 624,000. This is 2.5 percent (±1.3%) above the revised May rate of 609,000 and is 6.7 percent (±2.0%) above the June 2010 estimate of 585,000.
• Single-family authorizations in June were at a rate of 407,000; this is 0.2 percent (±1.0%)* above the revised May figure of 406,000.
• Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 198,000 in June.

HOUSING STARTS

• Privately-owned housing starts in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 629 000 This is 14 6 percent (±10 9%) above the revised May estimate of 549,000 and is 16.7 percent (±11.8%) above the June 2010 rate of 539,000.
• Single-family housing starts in June were at a rate of 453,000; this is 9.4 percent (±11.1%)* above the revised May figure of 414,000.
• The June rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 170,000.

HOUSING COMPLETIONS

• Privately-owned housing completions in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 535,000. This is 1.7 percent (±12.0%)*below the revised May estimate of 544,000 and is 39.3 percent (±6.6%) below the June 2010 rate of 881,000.
• Single-family housing completions in June were at a rate of 436,000; this is 0.0 percent (±14.5%)* equal to the revised May rate of436,000.
• The June rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 89,000.

http://www.census.gov/newresconstEXPLANATORY NOTESIn interpreting changes in the statistics in this release, note that month-to-month changes in seasonally adjusted statistics often show movements which may be irregular. It may take 2 months to establish an underlying trend for building permit authorizations, 4 months for total starts, and 5 months for total completions. 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. Estimated relative standard errors of the most recent data are shown in the tables. Whenever a statement such as “2.5 percent (±3.2%) above” appears in the text, this indicates the range (-0.7 to +5.7 percent) in which the actual percent change is likely to have occurred. All ranges given for percent changes are 90-percent confidence intervals and account only for sampling variability. If a range does not contain zero, the change is statistically significant. If it does contain zero, the change is not statistically significant; that is, it is uncertain whether there was an increase or decrease. The same policies apply to the confidence intervals for percent changes shown in the tables. On average, the preliminary seasonally adjusted estimates of total building permits, housing starts and housing completions are revised about three percent or less. Explanations of confidence intervals and sampling variability can be found on our web site listed above. * 90% confidence interval includes zero. The Census Bureau does not have sufficient statistical evidence to conclude that the actual change is different from zero.