August Housing, Single-Family Starts Show Solid Gains

September 18, 2019 by Paul Ausick

The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported Wednesday morning that new housing starts in August rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.36 million, an increase of 12.3% from the upwardly revised July rate of 1.215 million and an increase of 6.6% compared with the August 2018 rate of 1.279 million.

The revision to the July rate added 24,000 new housing starts to the previously reported total. The consensus estimate from a survey of economists expected a January rate of around 1.25 million.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, housing starts fell by 1.8% year over year through August. Single-family starts were down 2.7%, and buildings with two to four units fell by 1%.

Single-family housing starts rose by 4.4% month over month in August to 919,000 units on a seasonally adjusted basis. New construction dipped by 1.7% in the Northeast and rose by 8.7% in the Midwest, 3.6% in the South and rose by 5.3% in the West.

The seasonally adjusted rate of new building permits rose to 1.419 million, up 7.7% from the revised July rate of 1.317 million and 12% higher than the August 2018 rate.

Permits for new single-family homes rose by 4.5% month over month in August from a revised annual rate of 829,000 in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 866,000. The rate also increased by 4.5% year over year.

Multifamily starts, for buildings with five or more units, increased by 14.9% year over year in August to 509,000 units. This number is more volatile than the single-family number and has been moving mostly sideways on an annual basis since 2013.

In 2018, 1.242 million housing units were started, up 3.2% compared with 2017. An estimated 1.311 million permits were issued in 2017, up about 3.7% year over year. These totals are subject to future revisions.


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