New housing permits continued their recovery in August, with a total of 358 single-family home permits issued in Macomb, Oakland, St. Clair, and Wayne counties, according to the Home Builders Association of Southeastern Michigan in Farmington Hills.
August was the third consecutive month with more than 300 permits. Also, July’s actual number of permits was revised upward to a total of 408, making July the highest monthly total dating back to September 2019, when 462 permits were issued.
“Historically low mortgage interest rates are having their intended stimulative effect,” says Michael Stoskopf, CEO of the Home Builders Association. “According to data reported by REALCOMP, existing single-family home sales reached their highest monthly total in August (6,102) since June 2016 (6,202). Combined with low existing home inventories, buyers are clearly moving to new home construction to fill the void.”
The top five municipalities so far this year for permits include Macomb Township (198), Canton Township (191), Shelby Township (154), Novi (133), and Troy (84).
The top five home builders are Pulte Homes (292), Lombardo Homes (216), M/I Homes of Michigan (124), Infinity Homes (71), and Robertson Brothers Homes (62).
The average new single-family permit value decreased 5.8 percent from the previous month to $292,439. This is flat year-over-year, seeing a 1.5 percent drop.
The average single-family home sale price stayed flat from the previous month, seeing a 0.5 percent increase to $261,499. This is up 9.5 percent from the previous year.
North American vehicle production continued to improve. August saw a 6.6 percent increase from the previous month to 1,360,416 units. However, this is down 7.7 percent year-over-year.
Michigan’s employed rate also increased 9.1 percent to 1,710,429 compared to July. However, this is 11.6 percent below August 2019’s figure.
The workforce stayed flat month-over-month, decreasing 0.5 percent to 1,906,088. This is a 6.8 percent decrease from the previous year.
While the price of crude oil per barrel increased 3.7 percent from July, it is still down 25.4 percent from the previous year to $41.96.
