Housing Starts Rise 1.7%, Single Family Starts Down 4.2%

In July, housing starts rose 1.7% to an annualized pace of 546,000 units. July’s increase follows a large downwardly revised drop in June of 8.7% (previously reported as a 5.0% drop). Since the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit, housing construction has fallen considerably and remained at a low level not seen since October 2009.

The increase over the month was entirely due to the volatile multifamily starts component, which rose 32.6% after dropping 33.3% in June. Single family starts continued to fall, declining 4.2%. Single family starts are now at their slowest pace since May 2009. From a year prior, total starts were down 7.0%, while single family starts were down 14.6%.

New building permits, which tend to lead future starts, fell 3.1%, Single family permits declined by 1.2%.

Source: Census Bureau