U.S. Housing Starts Ease in March
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
- Multi-family starts decline moderately; single-family units rise.
- Starts are mixed across the country.
- Building permits decline led by multi-family.
Total housing starts slipped 0.8% (-17.2% y/y) during March to 1.420 million units (SAAR) from 1.432 million in February, revised from 1.450 million. Starts were 21.3% below the April 2022 peak of 1.805 million units. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected 1.40 million starts in March.
The slip in total starts last month was led by a 5.9% decline (+6.5% y/y) in multi-family starts to 559,000. The decline followed a 16.2% February increase. Single-family starts rose 2.7% (-27.7% y/y) to 861,000 after rising 1.8% in February. They remained 34.2% below the December 2020 peak.
Starts in the Northeast surged 72.4% in March (-14.2% y/y) to 181,000 after falling 16.0% in February. In the South, starts increased 6.8% (0.2% y/y) to 848,000 following a 1.3% February rise. Starts in the Midwest fell 23.6% (-44.4% y/y) to 133,000, following a 34.9% February increase. Starts in the West weakened 28.1% (-38.6% y/y) to 258,000 after rising 21.3% in February.
Building permits fell 8.8% (-24.8% y/y) to 1.413 million from 1.550 in February, revised from 1.524 million. Multi-family permits fell 22.1% (-16.9% y/y) to 595,000 after a 23.8% February increase. Single-family permits gained 4.1% (-29.7% y/y) to 818,000 after an 8.9% February increase.
The housing starts and permits figures can be found in Haver's USECON database. The expectations figure is contained in the AS1REPNA database.
Tom Moeller
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Prior to joining Haver Analytics in 2000, Mr. Moeller worked as the Economist at Chancellor Capital Management from 1985 to 1999. There, he developed comprehensive economic forecasts and interpreted economic data for equity and fixed income portfolio managers. Also at Chancellor, Mr. Moeller worked as an equity analyst and was responsible for researching and rating companies in the economically sensitive automobile and housing industries for investment in Chancellor’s equity portfolio. Prior to joining Chancellor, Mr. Moeller was an Economist at Citibank from 1979 to 1984. He also analyzed pricing behavior in the metals industry for the Council on Wage and Price Stability in Washington, D.C. In 1999, Mr. Moeller received the award for most accurate forecast from the Forecasters' Club of New York. From 1990 to 1992 he was President of the New York Association for Business Economists. Mr. Moeller earned an M.B.A. in Finance from Fordham University, where he graduated in 1987. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from George Washington University.
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