Briefings

Each briefing answers one question with numbers computed from the Census Bureau permit files, by Caleb Jenkins.

• Which metro areas authorize the most new homes

  Dallas–Fort Worth and Houston lead; the top ten take about a quarter of the national count.

• Building permits per 1,000 residents, metro by metro

  Raw totals favor big cities; a per-resident rate shows where building runs fastest.

• Houses or apartments: how the permit mix shifted

  About a third of new units now sit in buildings of five or more, up from under a fifth in 2004–2006.

• The 2000s boom, the bust and the recovery in permits

  US permits fell 73% from 2005 to 2009; only some places have built back past their boom pace.

• New housing permits by state: totals, rates and records

  Texas and Florida authorize more than a quarter of all new US homes.

• Duplexes to fourplexes in the permit record

  Buildings of two to four units supply under 4% of new homes, but not everywhere.

• What a building permit count can and cannot tell you

  Permits are authorizations, partly estimated, and only where permits are required.