Florida Authorized 13,980 Housing Units in August. That Is 12.8% Below July.

Florida authorized 13,980 new privately owned housing units in August 2026. That count is in the U.S. Census Bureau’s revised Building Permits Survey, the state workbook posted with the September 24, 2026 release. July’s Florida total in the prior workbook was 16,024. The difference is 2,044 units. 2,044 divided by 16,024 is 12.8 percent. August did not add to July. It gave back most of July’s jump. This file is the revised state and metropolitan permit count. Housing starts are the separate Census and HUD construction release, CB26-147.

A permit authorizes a unit. It does not close a sale, and it does not put a family in a house. The August sales file is CB26-155. Statewide context stays on Florida markets. The service doors are residential and commercial.

The August scoreboard

The state units sheet is unadjusted. It is not a seasonally adjusted annual rate. The August 2026 columns for Florida are these.

• Total: 13,980 units.
• One-unit structures: 9,697.
• Two-unit structures: 272.
• Three- and four-unit structures: 38.
• Five units or more: 3,973.
• Structures with five units or more: 143.

One-unit buildings are 69.4 percent of the Florida total. Five-or-more units are 28.4 percent. Two-unit buildings are 1.9 percent. Three- and four-unit buildings are 0.3 percent. Add the four structure rows: 9,697 plus 272 plus 38 plus 3,973 is 13,980.

The United States total on the same sheet is 118,333. Florida’s 13,980 is 11.8 percent of that national total. The South region is 62,709, and Florida is 22.3 percent of the South. The South Atlantic division is 37,522, and Florida is 37.3 percent of the division. Texas, on the same page, authorized 14,789. Florida is the second-largest state total in the August workbook, behind Texas and ahead of California’s 9,649.

The 143 multifamily structures held 3,973 units. That is 27.8 units per structure. July’s 114 structures held 5,985 units, which is 52.5 units per structure. August’s multifamily buildings were both fewer and smaller. That is the arithmetic behind a month that can look quiet in a subdivision and still move thousands of units when one metro’s apartment permits bunch up.

July was the high month

July 2026, from the July state workbook, was 16,024 units: 9,859 in one-unit structures, 112 in two-unit structures, 68 in three- and four-unit structures, and 5,985 in buildings of five or more. June was 13,629: 9,943 one-unit, 124 two-unit, 48 three- and four-unit, and 3,514 in five-or-more.

Set August against those two months and the story splits by structure.

• One-unit: 9,697 in August, 9,859 in July, 9,943 in June. August is 1.6 percent below July and a little below June. The single-family authorization count barely moved.
• Five or more: 3,973 in August, 5,985 in July, 3,514 in June. August is 33.6 percent below July, a drop of 2,012 units. August is still above June. The entire statewide decline from July to August, 2,044 units, is accounted for by the multifamily row plus a small one-unit dip. Two-unit permits rose, from 112 to 272. Three- and four-unit permits fell, from 68 to 38. Those two rows are too small to drive the state.
• Versus June: August’s 13,980 is 2.6 percent above June’s 13,629. The month that stands out in this three-month run is July, not August.

August 2025, from that year’s state workbook, was 13,594 units: 8,996 one-unit, 238 two-unit, 44 three- and four-unit, and 4,316 in five-or-more. August 2026 is 386 units above that month, which is 2.8 percent. One-unit permits are 7.8 percent above August 2025. Five-or-more permits are 7.9 percent below August 2025. The year-over-year August comparison is a small gain, and it is a single-family gain. The year-to-date comparison is a different sentence.

The year is still behind

Year-to-date figures in the August 2026 workbook run through August. Florida’s year-to-date total is 109,323 units: 76,599 one-unit, 1,328 two-unit, 645 three- and four-unit, and 30,751 in five-or-more, in 836 multifamily structures. One-unit buildings are 70.1 percent of the year-to-date total. Five-or-more units are 28.1 percent.

Through August 2025 the same columns were 123,124 units: 77,595 one-unit, 1,802 two-unit, 863 three- and four-unit, and 42,864 in five-or-more. The 2026 year-to-date total is 13,801 units lower, which is 11.2 percent. One-unit year-to-date permits are only 1.3 percent below last year’s pace. Five-or-more year-to-date permits are 28.3 percent below last year’s pace. In 2025 those eight months were 63.0 percent one-unit and 34.8 percent five-or-more. The mix has shifted toward one-unit buildings because the multifamily count fell, not because single-family authorizations surged.

The national August total, 118,333, is 8.2 percent below the July national total of 128,868 in the July workbook. Florida’s 12.8 percent monthly drop is steeper than the nation’s. Florida’s share of the national total is still large. A state that is about 12 percent of U.S. authorizations will move the national multifamily line when its own apartment permits bunch into one month and then do not repeat.

Permit valuation is the cost on the form

The companion sheet is valuation, in thousands of dollars. It is the construction cost reported with the permit. It is not a closed-sale price and not a list price.

Florida’s August valuation is $4,492,644,000. July’s was $4,563,777,000. Valuation fell 1.6 percent while units fell 12.8 percent. August 2025 valuation was $3,805,371,000, so this August’s valuation is 18.1 percent above the year-ago month even though the unit count is only 2.8 percent higher. Year-to-date valuation is $33,122,316,000, against $34,579,628,000 through August 2025, a decline of 4.2 percent. Units year to date are down 11.2 percent. Valuation year to date is down less than units.

Divide valuation by units and label the result for what it is: reported permit cost per authorized unit.

• August 2026, all units: $4,492,644,000 divided by 13,980 is $321,362.
• July 2026, all units: $4,563,777,000 divided by 16,024 is $284,809.
• August 2025, all units: $3,805,371,000 divided by 13,594 is $279,930.
• August 2026, one-unit: $3,477,937,000 divided by 9,697 is $358,661.
• August 2026, five or more: $953,897,000 divided by 3,973 is $240,095.

The August cost per unit is higher than July’s because July’s extra units were concentrated in five-or-more buildings, and those buildings carry a lower reported cost per unit than one-unit houses. Losing them raises the average without a matching jump in the one-unit cost. None of these figures is a median sale price. The August new-home sales release is the place for the national median on a sold new house. This sheet does not print one.

Where the units were

The metropolitan workbook for the same August release prints core-based statistical areas. The 28 Florida areas on that sheet sum to 13,852 units. The state total is 13,980. The gap is small. A metro total is still not a county total, and a county inside a large metro does not get its own line in the state workbook.

The six largest August totals:

• Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater: 2,060. One-unit 1,282. Five-or-more 768. Year to date 15,098.
• Jacksonville: 1,702. One-unit 1,029. Five-or-more 667. Year to date 8,669.
• Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford: 1,472. One-unit 1,120. Five-or-more 328. Year to date 13,480.
• Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach: 1,359. One-unit 476. Five-or-more 839. Year to date 14,906.
• Cape Coral-Fort Myers: 1,200. One-unit 762. Five-or-more 428. Year to date 7,839.
• North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota: 1,140. One-unit 789. Five-or-more 311. Year to date 8,879.

Those six are 8,933 units, 63.9 percent of the state. Tampa leads the month. Miami leads none of the large metros on the one-unit row. Miami’s one-unit count is 476. Its five-or-more count is 839, which is 61.7 percent of the Miami total. Tampa’s one-unit share is 62.2 percent. Lakeland-Winter Haven authorized 562 units, and 541 of them were one-unit, 96.3 percent.

Tampa, Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville

Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater authorized 2,060 units in August, down from 2,473 in July, a drop of 16.7 percent. One-unit permits rose, from 1,161 to 1,282, which is 10.4 percent. Five-or-more permits fell, from 1,280 to 768, which is 40.0 percent. Against August 2025, when the metro authorized 2,908, this August is 29.2 percent lower. Year to date, 15,098 versus 16,393, is 7.9 percent lower. Hernando, Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas sit inside this metropolitan area. The workbook does not split them. A Hernando sentence and a Tampa-metro sentence are not the same number. The local zoning file for one Spring Hill corner is H-22-26. The Hernando market update and the Hernando commercial overview are the county guides. They are not this permit table.

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach authorized 1,359 units, down from 2,732 in July, a drop of 50.3 percent. Five-or-more units fell from 2,139 to 839, a drop of 60.8 percent. One-unit units fell from 549 to 476. Against August 2025, when the metro authorized 939, this August is 44.7 percent higher. Year to date, 14,906 versus 15,028, is 0.8 percent lower. The month is a multifamily swing. The year, so far, is almost flat. Miami’s year-to-date book is still the most multifamily-heavy of the large Florida metros on this sheet: 9,875 of the 14,906 year-to-date units are in buildings of five or more.

Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford authorized 1,472, down from 2,008 in July, 26.7 percent, and down from 1,649 in August 2025, 10.7 percent. Year to date, 13,480 versus 20,149, is 33.1 percent lower. That is the deepest year-to-date gap among the large metros on this page. Orlando’s August was still mostly one-unit: 1,120 of 1,472.

Jacksonville authorized 1,702, up from 844 in July. Five-or-more units went from 14 in July to 667 in August. A one-month multifamily count that small, then that large, is why a metro percent can look violent without describing the year. Against August 2025, Jacksonville is 26.7 percent higher. Year to date, 8,669 versus 9,635, is 10.0 percent lower. The August bounce did not erase the earlier months.

Cape Coral-Fort Myers authorized 1,200, 5.4 percent above July and 19.6 percent above August 2025. Year to date, 7,839 versus 10,115, is 22.5 percent lower. North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota authorized 1,140, 9.7 percent above July and 20.1 percent below August 2025. Year to date is 13.8 percent lower. Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville authorized 530, 29.3 percent below July and 35.5 percent above August 2025. Its year-to-date total, 3,221 versus 2,861, is 12.6 percent higher, one of the few large year-to-date gains on this list. Lakeland-Winter Haven’s 562 is 14.5 percent below July, 3.1 percent below August 2025, and the year-to-date total is 21.2 percent lower.

Ocala, Homosassa Springs, and the Nature Coast

The Ocala metropolitan area authorized 362 units in August: 342 one-unit, 20 two-unit, and zero in buildings of five or more. That is 20.1 percent below July’s 453 and 21.5 percent below August 2025’s 461. Year to date, 4,053 versus 4,504, is 10.0 percent lower. The year-to-date five-or-more column for Ocala is also zero. Last year’s year-to-date five-or-more column was 327. Under the Office of Management and Budget definition used for this metro in the population estimates, the Ocala area is Marion County. The April 1, 2025 population briefing is 433,765. The permit count is not that population count. BEBR’s housing-unit method, described in that estimates book, uses residential permits as one input to a later population estimate. These 362 units are an August authorization. They are not an addition to the April 1, 2025 headcount. The road project on I-75 from SR 200 to SR 326 is a third Marion file, and it is a construction calendar, not a housing permit: auxiliary lanes.

Homosassa Springs authorized 181 units: 177 one-unit, 4 two-unit, and zero in five-or-more. That is 1.7 percent above July’s 178 and 19.1 percent above August 2025’s 152. Year to date, 1,271 versus 1,403, is 9.4 percent lower. The Homosassa Springs metropolitan area is Citrus County. The people-and-schools briefing for that county is Citrus added people. QuickFacts’ 2,102 building permits for Citrus in 2025, cited in that briefing, are a full-year county figure from a different vintage. They are not this August metro count, and they should not be added to it.

Wildwood-The Villages authorized 342, of which 332 were one-unit. Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach authorized 387, of which 357 were one-unit. Port St. Lucie authorized 375, of which 365 were one-unit. Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent authorized 284, of which 282 were one-unit. Gainesville authorized 397, and 151 of those were in five-or-more buildings, so that smaller metro does not follow the one-unit pattern of Ocala or Homosassa Springs. Naples-Marco Island authorized 239. Punta Gorda authorized 294. Panama City authorized 213. Tallahassee authorized 186.

How a buyer, a builder, or an owner uses the count

For a buyer, the permit is a supply signal with a lag, and the lag is not the same for a house and an apartment. A one-unit permit is a house that can show up in a subdivision after the builder finishes it. A five-or-more permit can be dozens of units in one building, authorized in a single month, and those units do not arrive as one-unit listings on the same street. August’s statewide drop was the apartment row. The one-unit row, 9,697, is close to July and close to June. In the Tampa metro, one-unit permits rose while the metro total fell. A shopper in Hernando, Pasco, Hillsborough, or Pinellas is inside that metro total and is not looking at a 16.7 percent thinner set of house permits. The metro’s house-permit row went up.

For a seller of an existing house, new permits are future competition, not this month’s closings. August sales of new houses are the other Census and HUD release. Existing-home sales are a third series. None of the three is a Spring Hill median or an Ocala median. The Freddie Mac survey is the weekly rate tape beside this construction count. A rate and a permit answer different questions.

For an owner who is staying, the useful local cut is the metro that contains the house. Marion’s official August housing authorizations, on the Ocala line, are 362, almost all one-unit, and the year is running below last year. Citrus, on the Homosassa Springs line, is 181 in the month and also behind for the year. The Tampa metro, which contains Hernando, is the largest Florida total in the month and is behind both July and last August, with the monthly damage in the five-or-more row. A permit valuation of $358,661 per one-unit authorization is a statewide construction-cost figure. It is not the taxable value of a house and not an insurance replacement estimate.

For a builder or a lender, the year-to-date line is the one that survives a single apartment month. Florida is 11.2 percent behind last year’s eight-month unit total, and 28.3 percent behind on five-or-more units, while one-unit year-to-date permits are within 1.3 percent of last year. Orlando’s year-to-date gap, 33.1 percent, is wider than the state’s. Miami’s year-to-date gap is 0.8 percent, after a July that was more than twice August. Jacksonville’s August multifamily count repaired a July in which that row was 14 units, and the year-to-date total is still 10.0 percent lower. Treating any one of those months as a turn in the market will not match the eight-month column sitting beside it in the same workbook.

The through-line

The revised August 2026 Building Permits Survey puts Florida at 13,980 authorized housing units. That is 12.8 percent below July’s 16,024 and 2.8 percent above August 2025’s 13,594. One-unit structures were 9,697, 69.4 percent of the month and only 1.6 percent below July. Units in buildings of five or more were 3,973, 33.6 percent below July and the reason the state total fell. Year to date, Florida is at 109,323, 11.2 percent below the 123,124 authorized through August 2025. Reported permit valuation in August was $4.493 billion, or $321,362 per authorized unit, which is a permit cost, not a sale price.

Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater led the state at 2,060, with one-unit permits up and five-or-more permits down. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach was 1,359, half of July, and nearly unchanged for the year. Orlando’s year-to-date total is 33.1 percent below last year. Ocala, the Marion metro, was 362, with no five-or-more units. Homosassa Springs, the Citrus metro, was 181. The national total on the same sheet was 118,333. Texas was 14,789. Florida was 11.8 percent of the United States.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey, Permits by State, August 2026, July 2026, June 2026, and August 2025, units and valuation sheets. Permits by CBSA, August 2026, July 2026, and August 2025. The release schedule places revised state, metropolitan, county, and place permits on the 17th workday, which for the August 2026 survey month was September 24, 2026. Census describes the valuation sheet as thousands of dollars. Percent changes and cost-per-unit figures in this briefing are divisions of those published cells. Census and HUD, New Residential Construction, August 2026, release CB26-147, is the separate starts release. New Residential Sales, August 2026, release CB26-155, is the separate sales release.

For help reading a Florida permit table against a parcel in Hernando, Citrus, Marion, Pasco, Hillsborough, or Pinellas, contact Bridge Point Business & Real Estate Advisors at 352-515-0226 or request a consultation.