Housing Permits Authorized represents the number of new, privately owned housing units— including houses, apartments, or groups of rooms or single rooms intended for occupancy as separate living quarters—authorized by construction permits. Hotels, motels, dormitories, nursing homes, and mobile homes are not included. Single units are defined as detached/semi-detached structures with a ground-to-roof parting wall, separate utilities, and separate entry from the street or common hallway. Data for New England and its six states are based on reports submitted by local building permit officials and are published monthly by the Census Bureau in Current Construction Reports - Housing Units Authorized by Building Permits, Table 2, “U.S., Region, Division, and State.” The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston seasonally adjusts the data. National figures are seasonally adjusted by the Census Bureau and are obtained from Current Construction Reports - Housing Units Authorized by Building Permits, Table 1, “U.S. and Four Regions.” The monthly data reported in Indicators do not incorporate revisions made by the Census Bureau which does publish year-to-date and annual permit data that reflect revisions to monthly data, but does not publish revised data for individual months.
Source
U.S. Bureau of Census
http://www.census.gov/const/www/permitsindex.html