U.S. Housing Starts Rise in July; Building Permits Are Little Changed
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
- Single-family starts rise but multi-family declines.
- Increase in starts is uneven across the country.
- Permits rise minimally with single-family gain.
Total housing starts increased 3.9% (5.9% y/y) to 1.452 million units (SAAR) during July following an 11.7% decline in June to 1.398 million, revised from 1.434 million. Starts have risen 7.0% so far this year despite the sharp increase in mortgage interest rates. Starts, however, remained 19.5% below the most recent peak of 1.803 million in April 2022. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected 1.443 million starts in July.
Starts of single-family homes rose 6.7% in July (9.5% y/y) to 983,000 from 921,000 in June, revised from 935,000. Starts of multi-family units weakened 1.7% (-0.8% y/y) to 469,000 after strengthening to 477,000 in June, revised from 499,000.
Starts in the West rose 14.0% (13.3% y/y) in July to 383,000 after falling 3.2% in June. Starts in the Midwest increased 9.9% (10.6% y/y) last month to 178,000 after falling 37.7% in June. In the Northeast, starts improved 1.0% (-38.9% y/y) to 102,000 after rising 5.2% in June. Housing starts in the South fell 1.3% (-11.9% y/y) to 789,000 following a 9.2% June decline.
Building permits edged 0.1% higher (-13.0% y/y) to 1.442 million following a 3.7% June decline to 1.441, revised from 1.440 million. Single-family permits rose 0.6% (1.3% y/y) to 930,000 after increasing 2.4% in June. Multi-family permits weakened 1.0% last month (-30.8% y/y) to 512,000 after a 13.0% June drop.
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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