US Building Permits Revised Higher
2026-02-20 13:29
By
Joana Ferreira
1 min. read
US building permits increased 4.8% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1.455 million in December 2025, slightly above the preliminary estimate of 1.448 million, revised figures showed.
The reading marked the highest level since March 2025.
The gain was driven by a 20% jump in permits for multifamily buildings with five or more units, which rose to 523,000, the strongest level since August 2023.
In contrast, single-family permits declined 1.7% to 881,000.
Regionally, permits rose sharply in the Northeast (+42.7% to 167,000), and increased in the Midwest (+6.6% to 210,000) and West (+10.7% to 362,000), while falling 4.1% in the South to 716,000.
For 2025 as a whole, approximately 1.43 million permits were issued, down 3.5% compared with 2024.