New home construction in St Louis has begun 2015 with a slower start than one might expect given the spring-like weather St Louis experienced during much of January and the flurry of activity we have seen thus far this year from home buyers. Permits issued in January for new homes in the St Louis Metro Area were down 7.85 percent from a year ago, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis. As the chart below illustrates, for the bulk of last year, the number of permits issued during the month was down from a year ago.
Percentage Change From Year Ago In Building Permits Issued In St Louis MSA for Single-Family Homes
Source: Federal Reserve – St Louis
Search St Louis Homes For Sale HERE
See ALL Homes That Will Be Open In St Louis This Weekend
According to the Home Builders Association of St Louis and Easter Missouri, the biggest decline in building permits for new homes was in St Charles County where, during January, there were 101 permits issued for new single family homes, down from 142 permits for January 2014 and even below January 2013 when there were 125 permits issued. St Louis county saw the number of permits increase in January to 57 from 53 in January 2014. The complete HBA report can be found here.
For the midwest region as a whole, new home construction activity for 2015 thus far has not been impressive and has slowed significantly from the same time last year. Below are highlights from the report from the U.S. Commerce Department and U.S. Census Bureau for new home building permit activity for February 2015;
- 90,000 (seasonally adjusted, annual rate) building permits issued for new homes in the midwest, down 11.8% from January 2015 and down 2.2% from a year ago.
- 69,000 (seasonally adjusted, annual rate) new homes started, down 32.4% from the month before and down 13.8% from a year ago.
- 91,000 (seasonally adjusted, annual rate) new homes completed in the midwest, down 12.5% from January 2015 and down 13.3% from February 2014.
