As might have been expected considering the sixth consecutive drop in the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB’s) Housing Market Index released yesterday, residential builders pulled back in a big way last month. Both residential permitting and housing starts plummeted in June , although both so far are ahead of last year at the same date. The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development report that the seasonally adjusted annual rate of residential permitting dropped 7.0 percent in May to 1.695 million units compared to 1.823 million in April. The April rate is a revision from the 1.819 million units reported last month. The May 2022 number represents a 0.2 percent increase from the 1.691 permitting rate reported for May 2021. Single-family permitting was down 5.5 percent for the month and 7.9 percent lower on an annual basis at 1.048 million units. The annualized 592,000 permitting rate for multifamily units was down 10.0 percent and 19.8 percent from the two earlier periods. On an unadjusted basis there were 148,900 construction permits issued in May compared to 156,600 the prior month. There were 95,000 single-family homes authorized, down from 98,200 in April. During the first five months of the year 739,300 permits were issued, a 2.7 percent increase from the same period in 2021. Single family permits are down 2.5 percent while multifamily permits have risen 14.8 percent Housing starts fared worse. The annual rate dropped 14.4 percent to 1.549 million from 1.810 million in April. The latter, however, was a substantial upward revision from the original April estimate of 1.724 million. Starts were 3.5 percent lower than in May 2021.