U.S. Housing Starts Drop to 1.446 Mil. in July
Summary
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Starts level is lowest since February 2021.
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Single-family starts at 916,000, lowest since June 2020.
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Starts in the Northeast at a 14-year high; starts in the other regions down.
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Building permits at 1.674 mil., lowest since September 2021.
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Single-family & multi-family starts and single-family permits decrease, but multi-family permits rise for the second straight month.
New residential construction activity in July continued to feel the pressure from rising interest rates and home prices. Total housing starts fell 9.6% m/m (-8.1% y/y) to a lower-than-expected 1.446 million units (SAAR) in July after a 2.4% increase to 1.599 million in June (1.559 million initially) and a 13.5% decrease to 1.562 million in May (1.591 million previously), data from the U.S. Census Bureau showed. The July reading was the lowest level of housing starts since February 2021. The Action Economics Forecast Survey had expected 1.534 million starts in July.
Single-family starts slid 10.1% (-18.5% y/y) to 916,000 in July, the fifth consecutive m/m slide to the lowest level since June 2020, after a 5.0% decline to 1.019 million in June (982,000 initially). Multi-family starts fell 8.6% (+18.0% y/y) to 530,000, the second m/m fall in three months, after a 18.6% June rebound to 580,000 (577,000 initially).
Housing starts dropped in all the major regions except in the Northeast. Starts in the Midwest worsened 33.8% (-23.6% y/y) to 139,000 in July, the third m/m drop in four months to the lowest level since February 2021, on top of an 8.7% decline to 210,000 in June. Starts in the South decreased 18.7% (-21.5% y/y) to 710,000, the lowest level since August 2020, after a 1.5% June rebound to 873,000. Starts in the West declined 2.7% (-11.8% y/y) to 367,000 in July after having recovered 10.2% to 377,000 in June. To the upside, starts in the Northeast surged 65.5% (228.6% y/y) to 230,000, the largest m/m gain since last August to the highest level since June 2008, after a 6.9% June rise to 139,000.
Building permits fell 1.3% (+1.1% y/y) to 1.674 million in July, the third m/m fall in four months to the lowest level since September 2021, following a 0.1% uptick to 1.696 million in June. Single-family permits slid 4.3% (-11.7% y/y) to 928,000, the fifth straight m/m slide to the lowest level since June 2020, after a 7.7% June drop to 970,000. In contrast, multi-family permits increased 2.8% (23.5% y/y) to 746,000 in July, the highest level since December, on top of a 12.7% rebound to 726,000 in June.
The housing starts and permits figures can be found in Haver's USECON database. The expectations figure is contained in the AS1REPNA database.
Winnie Tapasanun
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Winnie Tapasanun has been working for Haver Analytics since 2013. She has 20+ years of working in the financial services industry. As Vice President and Economic Analyst at Globicus International, Inc., a New York-based company specializing in macroeconomics and financial markets, Winnie oversaw the company’s business operations, managed financial and economic data, and wrote daily reports on macroeconomics and financial markets. Prior to working at Globicus, she was Investment Promotion Officer at the New York Office of the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) where she wrote monthly reports on the U.S. economic outlook, wrote reports on the outlook of key U.S. industries, and assisted investors on doing business and investment in Thailand. Prior to joining the BOI, she was Adjunct Professor teaching International Political Economy/International Relations at the City College of New York. Prior to her teaching experience at the CCNY, Winnie successfully completed internships at the United Nations. Winnie holds an MA Degree from Long Island University, New York. She also did graduate studies at Columbia University in the City of New York and doctoral requirements at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her areas of specialization are international political economy, macroeconomics, financial markets, political economy, international relations, and business development/business strategy. Her regional specialization includes, but not limited to, Southeast Asia and East Asia. Winnie is bilingual in English and Thai with competency in French. She loves to travel (~30 countries) to better understand each country’s unique economy, fascinating culture and people as well as the global economy as a whole.
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