Manhattan Building Permits
We may be seeing the beginning of the bottom for Manhattan permit data. Looking at the December 2021 NYC Department of Buildings permit data, we see a month-on-month increase of 21% for non-residential, other (non 1–3 family) buildings.
For December 2020 to December 2021 change, data shows permits were down 60%, the highest among the five boroughs. Staten Island had the smallest decrease of 4% followed by Queens at down 33%. Brooklyn was down 42% and the Bronx was lower by 51%. These levels were much worse in the the 4 largest boroughs when comparing to the December 2020 change. This may have been due to the additional issues around labor and materials availability as well as the continued move to work from home.
When looking at data for the entire year, we see Manhattan permits were down 45%.
Paul Mangione
Fort Schuyler Advisors
