1. Analysis of Housing Starts in the United States
Daniel Kornaus

2. The object of this thesis is to gauge the state of recovery
in the housing sector (and the larger economy) by
analyzing the number of building permits issued in 2012
for housing starts.
This data is taken directly from the US Census Bureau.
Supporting points:
• A comparison of states by the number of housing starts
in 2012.
• A comparison of trends in individual states over the past
decade.
• An analysis of housing starts by state, weighted by 2010
Census data

3. The methodology:
1. Examine state and national trends in housing starts over
the past decade (FY2002 - FY2012.) This will be done
using a surface and a series of sparklines.
2. Examine the geographic trends in housing starts using
raw data. This is done using a map or surface map.
3. Adjust the raw housing start data vs. 2010 Census
population figures. This is done to gauge where the most
housing is being constructed per capita. Again, this is
depicted using a map or surface map. The data was
adjusted using this formula:
housing starts / population x1000
to provide an integer for each state to use as a scale for
color-coding a map or projecting a surface.

4. 2012
2008
2004
0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
300000
The leading edge of this figure shows figures for FY2012, and the
trailing edge shows figures for FY2002.

5. Alabama 18,403
11,385
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Conneticut
3,003
995
66,031
21,693
12,436
7,178
159,537
58,540
47,871
23,377
9,731
5,240
Delaware
District of
Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Hawai’i
Idaho
Illinois
6,331
4,066
1,591
3,823
185,431
65,039
97,523
23,474
5,902
3,210
13,488
6,753
60,971
13,675
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
39,596
13,807
14,798
9,992
12,983
6,047
19,459
8,329
18,425
12,741
7,207
2,788
29,293
14,646
17,465
10,440
Michigan
49,968
11,669
38,977
15,409
11,276
5,000
28,255
11,467
3,574 2,873
9,278
6,535
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Oklahoma
35,615
9,034
8,078
2,536
30,441
17,988
12,066
4,871
49,149
23,574
79,824
47,828
3,265
8,086
51,246
17,416
12,979 11,616
22,186
11,222
45,144
19,663
2,848
776
34,104
18,856
4,816 4,432
34,273
19,730
Tennessee
165,027
133,297Texas
19,327
12,520
Utah
3,072
1,258
Vermont
59,445
26,666
Virginia
40,200
28,103Washington
4,890
1,890
West Virginia
38,208
12,082
Wisconsin
2,045 1,877
Wyoming
1,747,651
815,512
United States
Note: Years 2006-
2008 are depicted
with a red vertical
line, to illustrate
when the housing
sector began to
be affected by the
recession.

6. Preliminary map of findings. TX, FL, CA, NY, NC, WA, AZ, CO, VA,
NC, and GA show the strongest numbers of housing starts in
2012. Keep in mind that these are highly populated states.

7. Preliminary map of adjusted figures. TX, NC, and CO still show
strong housing numbers, while other populated states such as
IL, NY, GA, and CA show softer housing markets, when weighted
against the number of people living there. The Dakotas show
particularly strong growth.

8. The conclusion:
All states were negatively affected by the housing crash.
Some are recovering faster than others. Many states in
the south and midwest still show little sign of recovery,
while others in the south/southeast and west show
stronger numbers in 2012 than in the past 5-6 years.
Housing numbers in almost all states were still substan-
tially lower in 2012 than they were 8-10 years before.
High numbers of housing starts in a particular state are
not necessarily indicitive of a productive housing market,
as noticed when population is taken into account.