Building Permits: Release Dates, Results & History
Building Permits last printed 1.44M on Tue, Aug 18, 2026 against a 1.37M consensus forecast and a 1.37M prior, exactly on consensus. Captured live by Helious the moment it printed.
Permits lead starts by one to two months, making them the forward-looking half of the residential construction report. They're a component of the leading economic indicators for a reason: builders pull permits based on where they think demand and rates are heading. Watch single-family permits as the clean trend line.
The trend, at a glance
How it moves Treasuries
Higher permits are mildly bearish Treasuries as a leading growth signal. Standalone market impact is small; the trend matters more than any single print. See it scored live on the Helious desk, or read how the standard-deviation surprise is computed.
Recent prints, as captured by the desk
| DATE | ACTUAL | FORECAST | PRIOR | SURPRISE (SD) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.44M | 1.37M | 1.37M | 0.00 | ABOVE FORECAST | |
| 1.37M | — | 1.41M | — | BELOW PRIOR |
The 2 most recent prints from the desk's live capture (began July 2026), a sample. Every row links the print page published the moment the number landed; the full graded history is served by the API.
Official series history
| PERIOD | VALUE (M UNITS SAAR) | PRIOR | CHANGE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.43M | 1.37M | +0.06M | |
| 1.37M | 1.41M | -0.04M | |
| 1.41M | 1.42M | -0.01M | |
| 1.42M | 1.36M | +0.06M | |
| 1.36M | 1.54M | -0.18M | |
| 1.54M | 1.39M | +0.15M | |
| 1.39M | 1.48M | -0.09M | |
| 1.48M | 1.41M | +0.07M |
The most recent official rows; the chart above draws the longer series. Desk-captured prints above include the consensus forecast and standard-deviation surprise the moment each number landed.
Related indicators
Monthly, ~mid-month, jointly with housing starts · 8:30 AM ET · download a sample (CSV, recent rows), free to cite with a link to this page. The full history comes through the Helious API and MCP at api.helious.io/mcp, with depth set by plan.