US Midwest building permits, monthly
New privately-owned housing units authorized in permit-issuing places in the Midwest Census Region — the leading indicator of future starts (thousands of units, seasonally adjusted annual rate; FRED PERMITMW, U.S. Census Bureau and HUD, New Residential Construction release, monthly 1960-01 onward). Carries 1-month and 12-month changes, the 3-month annualized percent change, and a contraction_flag. Method caveat (kept verbatim): starting with the 2005-02-16 release the series reflects an increase in the universe of permit-issuing places from 19,000 to 20,000 places.
- Rows
- 800
- Columns
- 14
- Source cadence
- Monthly
- Last refreshed
- Oct 2, 2026
- Theme
- housing
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| month_start | date | First day of the calendar month. (unit: date) |
| year_month | string | Calendar month as YYYY-MM (panel join key). (unit: string) |
| region | string | Census region (Midwest: East North Central (IL, IN, MI, OH, WI) plus West North Central (IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD)). (unit: string) |
| region_code | string | Short Census region code (panel join key). (unit: string) |
| country | string | Country name (shared normalization layer). (unit: string) |
| country_code | string | ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code (USA). (unit: string) |
| permits_thousands | float | New privately-owned building permits in the Midwest Census Region (thousands of units, SAAR; U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, New Residential Construction (Table 1)). (unit: thousands of units, SAAR) |
| permits_mom_thousands | float | 1-month change in building permits (null for the first panel month). (unit: thousands of units) |
| permits_mom_pct | float | 1-month percent change in building permits (null for the first panel month). (unit: percent) |
| permits_yoy_thousands | float | 12-month change in building permits (null for the first panel year). (unit: thousands of units) |
| permits_yoy_pct | float | 12-month percent change in building permits (null for the first panel year). (unit: percent) |
| permits_3m_ann_pct | float | 3-month annualized percent change in building permits (null for the first 3 panel months). (unit: percent) |
| contraction_flag | integer | 1 when 12-month building permits growth is negative (fewer units than a year earlier), else 0. (unit: flag) |
| row_hash | string | Deterministic 16-hex sha256 of year_month + region_code + the level (idempotency key). (unit: string) |
First 10 sample rows — a preview, not the complete dataset.
| month_start | year_month | region | region_code | country | country_code | permits_thousands | permits_mom_thousands | permits_mom_pct | permits_yoy_thousands | permits_yoy_pct | permits_3m_ann_pct | contraction_flag | row_hash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960-01-01 | 1960-01 | Midwest | MW | United States | USA | 253 | — | — | — | — | — | 0 | 00f83b53042d20d0 |
| 1960-02-01 | 1960-02 | Midwest | MW | United States | USA | 256 | 3 | 1.186 | — | — | — | 0 | e7cf5d961ce3fae0 |
| 1960-03-01 | 1960-03 | Midwest | MW | United States | USA | 189 | -67 | -26.172 | — | — | — | 0 | b1d189bf1d83e594 |
| 1960-04-01 | 1960-04 | Midwest | MW | United States | USA | 244 | 55 | 29.101 | — | — | -13.488 | 0 | e2371feda55a31fe |
| 1960-05-01 | 1960-05 | Midwest | MW | United States | USA | 240 | -4 | -1.639 | — | — | -22.752 | 0 | 0260ed8b6de4d24f |
| 1960-06-01 | 1960-06 | Midwest | MW | United States | USA | 213 | -27 | -11.25 | — | — | 61.314 | 0 | dc233c40f82046c4 |
| 1960-07-01 | 1960-07 | Midwest | MW | United States | USA | 224 | 11 | 5.164 | — | — | -28.971 | 0 | b70fcedec71cc0f1 |
| 1960-08-01 | 1960-08 | Midwest | MW | United States | USA | 230 | 6 | 2.679 | — | — | -15.654 | 0 | 0fcca1df09bd8f88 |
| 1960-09-01 | 1960-09 | Midwest | MW | United States | USA | 220 | -10 | -4.348 | — | — | 13.808 | 0 | 15a581d5dcb51059 |
| 1960-10-01 | 1960-10 | Midwest | MW | United States | USA | 232 | 12 | 5.455 | — | — | 15.069 | 0 | 9b5c99eb91f1eaec |
- Current
20261002T045140Z-f77590440869 · sha256 f77590440869…
800 rows · first snapshot
Point any LLM at the metadata endpoint — the documentation above is machine-readable too (JSON-LD + Croissant).
curl "https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/fred_housing_pack/us_building_permits_midwest_monthly" | jq '{title, rows, columns_count, license}'import requests
ds = requests.get("https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/fred_housing_pack/us_building_permits_midwest_monthly").json()
print(ds["title"], ds["rows"], "rows")
# Sample rows for an LLM context window
for row in ds.get("sample_rows", [])[:5]:
print(row)API endpoint: https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/fred_housing_pack/us_building_permits_midwest_monthly
Tip: fetch /llms.txt for the full machine-readable catalog.
Where this data comes from and what was made from it. Other people's work shows as counts; only shared projects are named.
Cite this snapshot
Pinned to snapshot 20261002T045140Z-f77590440869 and its content hash, so readers get exactly the data you used.
US Regional Housing Intelligence (FRED, keyless). (2026). US Midwest building permits, monthly [Data set, snapshot 20261002T045140Z-f77590440869, sha256 f77590440869]. Datazimuts. Retrieved 2026-10-02, from https://datazimuts.com/en/datasets/fred_housing_pack/us_building_permits_midwest_monthly?snapshot=20261002T045140Z-f77590440869
@misc{dz_fred_housing_pack_us_building_permits_mi_f7759044,
title = {{US Midwest building permits, monthly}},
author = {{US Regional Housing Intelligence (FRED, keyless)}},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Datazimuts},
howpublished = {\url{https://datazimuts.com/en/datasets/fred_housing_pack/us_building_permits_midwest_monthly?snapshot=20261002T045140Z-f77590440869}},
note = {Snapshot 20261002T045140Z-f77590440869, sha256 f775904408697b4fa0be97a40a1dbadc483ffd444c1c7af35e64b32290023528; accessed 2026-10-02}
}Embed a table or a chart
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<iframe src="https://datazimuts.com/embed/chart?dataset=fred_housing_pack%2Fus_building_permits_midwest_monthly&lang=en&theme=auto&snapshot=20261002T045140Z-f77590440869&x=year_month&y=permits_thousands&agg=avg" title="US Midwest building permits, monthly" width="100%" height="380" style="border:0" loading="lazy"></iframe>
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