Starts Watch: 2000 Final Totals

United States residential building permits totaled 1,592,267 in 2000, down from 1,663,533 housing units in 1999 according to the C40 Housing Units Authorized by Building Permit report issued by the US Census Bureau. This is a decrease of 4.3% from 1999.

We have analyzed the starts information by state in a series of tables and maps. All maps are in both GIF and Acrobat format. For offline printing and analysis, we recommend the Acrobat format because of the Acrobat Reader's ability to magnify the map area and its better printing resolution.  These maps were converted using Acrobat 5.0.

Florida remains the state with the most overall housing permits with 155,269 down from 164,863 in 1999 (down 5.7%).  Following are California (145,575, up 5.5% from 1999) and Texas  (141,321, down 3.6% from 1999) .  The states with the fewest permits were Wyoming (1,582), North Dakota (2,128), and Alaska (2,147).  

The states with the greatest percentage increase in total starts from 1999 were Hawaii (16.5%), South Dakota (14.3%) and Colorado (10.7%).  The greatest percent decreases from 1999 were in Rhode Island (-24.0%), Oklahoma (-21.4%) and Arkansas and Kansas (both -20.0%).

• HTML Table with 2000 totals by state, plus percent change from 1999.
• Excel spreadsheet with 2000 totals by state and percent change from 1999
• Excel spreadsheet with Metropolitan Statistical Area totals for 2000, plus change from 1999
• Map of states by total residential permits: GIF | Acrobat
• Map of states by percent change in total units permitted, 1999 to 2000: GIF  | Acrobat 

Single-family permits for the United States totaled 1,198,067 in 2000, a 3.9% decrease from 1,246,665  in 1999.  By state, Texas replaced Florida as the state with the highest number of single-family permits, totaling 108,613, a 6.6% increase from 1999.  Florida was second with 106,447, down 0.1% from 1999.  California was third, totaling 105,018, a 2.2% increase from 1999.  The states with the fewest single-family permits were North Dakota  (1,257), followed by Wyoming  (1,429) and Montana (1,565).

The states with the greatest percentage increase for single-family permits from 1999 were Hawaii (26.6%), South Dakota (9.2%) and New Hampshire (7.0%).  The states with the greatest decreases in single-family permits from 1999 were Mississippi (-20.5%), Oklahoma (-18.8%) and Tennessee (-18.2%). 

• Map of total single-family permits by state: GIF  | Acrobat 
• Map of percent change in single-family permits from 1999 to 2000: GIF  |Acrobat 

Multifamily permits totaled 394,200 in 2000, down 5.4% from 416,868 in 1999. Florida remains the state with the highest number of multifamily starts, totaling 48,822 a 16.0% increase from 1999.  California was second with 40,557, an increase of 14.9%.  Texas was third with 32,618, a 27.1% decrease.  The lowest number of multifamily permits was in Wyoming (313), followed by Vermont (413), and Rhode Island (444).

The state with the highest percentage increase in multifamily permits from 1999 is Delaware, which showed a 50.3% increase.  Following were Colorado (46.8%),  and Maine (37.1%).  The increase in Colorado represents an additional 5,105 units.  The states with the largest percentage decreases were Wyoming (-65.5%), Rhode Island (-52.2%) and Louisiana (-50.9%). 

• Map of total multifamily permits by state: GIF  | Acrobat 
• Map of percent change in multifamily permits from 1999 to 2000 by state: GIF  | Acrobat 
• Map of ratio of multifamily permits to total permits, 2000: GIF  | Acrobat 

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