Annual Housing Completions

The other component of housing data that often gets overlooked is the number of actual housing completions.  While this is not a forward indicator, it gives a better retrospective look at the housing market as it relates to valuation of the home construction sector.  Since data began being collected on this back in 1968, we just posted the worst home completions number ever, coming in at 653,500 total homes completed.  The previous worst number was last year, coming in at 794,400 total homes.  In other words, the home construction market came in at 18% below last year.  The recent peak number was in 2006, coming in at 1,979,400.  The all time peak was in 1973, coming in at 2,100,500.  We are 67% off the 2006 high.