Building Permits
New Privately-Owned Housing Units Authorized in Permit-Issuing Places: Total Units
The number, plainly.
The annualized number of new housing units authorized by permit, the earliest step in the construction pipeline.
Higher, lower, and what each means.
Permits lead starts by a month or two. A drop here is the first warning that construction activity is about to slow.
A reading is not a verdict. The Scan phase of Woodring’s Loop collects the signal; the Story phase asks what futures it is consistent with, and only the Stake phase turns that into a decision. This page does the first part.
The line in your 2027 plan.
Tests: the 2027 construction-volume assumption before it reaches the starts data.
Write the assumption down, name the reading that would break it, and put a date on when it has to be argued again. That is the 18-Month Sunset applied to one line of a budget. The Last Annual Planshows what this season’s moves have already done to the common ones.
The last 36 readings.
Most recent first. Every value is as published by FRED at the time of the last refresh; FRED revises some series after the fact.
| Date | Value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 1, 2026 | 1.40M | −0.4% |
| Aug 1, 2026 | 1.40M | −2.1% |
| Jul 1, 2026 | 1.43M | +4.3% |
| Jun 1, 2026 | 1.37M | −2.6% |
| May 1, 2026 | 1.41M | −0.9% |
| Apr 1, 2026 | 1.42M | +4.4% |
| Mar 1, 2026 | 1.36M | −11.5% |
| Feb 1, 2026 | 1.54M | +10.6% |
| Jan 1, 2026 | 1.39M | −6.0% |
| Dec 1, 2025 | 1.48M | +4.8% |
| Nov 1, 2025 | 1.41M | −0.3% |
| Oct 1, 2025 | 1.42M | −1.8% |
| Sep 1, 2025 | 1.44M | +7.2% |
| Aug 1, 2025 | 1.35M | −3.8% |
| Jul 1, 2025 | 1.40M | +0.1% |
| Jun 1, 2025 | 1.40M | −1.2% |
| May 1, 2025 | 1.42M | −2.0% |
| Apr 1, 2025 | 1.45M | −3.2% |
| Mar 1, 2025 | 1.49M | +3.2% |
| Feb 1, 2025 | 1.45M | −1.2% |
| Jan 1, 2025 | 1.46M | −0.3% |
| Dec 1, 2024 | 1.47M | −3.0% |
| Nov 1, 2024 | 1.51M | +5.4% |
| Oct 1, 2024 | 1.44M | +1.0% |
| Sep 1, 2024 | 1.42M | −4.8% |
| Aug 1, 2024 | 1.49M | +3.0% |
| Jul 1, 2024 | 1.45M | −0.8% |
| Jun 1, 2024 | 1.46M | +3.8% |
| May 1, 2024 | 1.41M | −3.5% |
| Apr 1, 2024 | 1.46M | −1.4% |
| Mar 1, 2024 | 1.48M | −5.9% |
| Feb 1, 2024 | 1.57M | +1.4% |
| Jan 1, 2024 | 1.55M | +3.1% |
| Dec 1, 2023 | 1.50M | −0.8% |
| Nov 1, 2023 | 1.51M | −0.7% |
| Oct 1, 2023 | 1.52M | — |
When Building Permits moves, know what it tests.
The monthly Signal Layer covers every series in the library: what moved, which planning assumptions it tests, and what a continuous-planning team does about it. One email a month. Unsubscribe in one click.
Where the number comes from.
New Privately-Owned Housing Units Authorized in Permit-Issuing Places: Total Units (PERMIT), retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PERMIT. Refreshed daily; 120 readings on file from Oct 1, 2016 to Sep 1, 2026.
Predictive Planning Institute, Signal Library: Building Permits (PERMIT). predictiveplanning.com/signals/PERMIT. Data via FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Value 1.40M as of Sep 1, 2026.