Building Permits

New Privately-Owned Housing Units Authorized in Permit-Issuing Places - Total Units

View on FRED · PERMIT ↗

1,398k

yoy

▼ 3.19%

121 obs · monthly · thousands── 1y ago 1,444k

What it is

Earlier than starts. First look at what supply looks like in 6–12 months.

source: FRED
frequency: monthly
units: thousands
s.a.: yes

Note: SAAR.

What it’s telling us · as of 2026-09-01

Permits are running at 1,398k annualized as of September, down 3.2% year-over-year — a softer pace than the 1,444k print a year ago but not a cliff. The last six months have bounced between 1,363k and 1,540k, which reads more like noise than signal; the real story is that builders still aren't committing to ground at the pace they were. Watch this line against starts (which should follow permits within 30-60 days) — if starts hold up while permits stay soft, builders are pulling from their pre-permit queue and supply is running down faster than new permits suggest. That's the inflection worth marking.

⟡ auto-generated weekly · claude-haiku-4-5 · reviewed before publish

Related metrics

Get the data

Python · fredapi

"""
Building Permits — Earlier than starts. First look at what supply looks like in 6–12 months.
Freq: monthly · Source: FRED
"""
from fredapi import Fred

fred = Fred(api_key="YOUR_FRED_API_KEY")
series = fred.get_series("PERMIT")
print(series.tail())

LLM prompt

You are analyzing FRED series PERMIT — New Privately-Owned Housing Units Authorized in Permit-Issuing Places - Total Units.

Context: Earlier than starts. First look at what supply looks like in 6–12 months.

Attributes
- Units: thousands
- Frequency: monthly
- Source: FRED

Latest observation: 1,398k as of 2026-09-01
Year-over-year change: -3.19%

Analyze this metric for a tech-forward real estate investor with 1–3 properties. What is it signaling right now? What should I watch next?