Housing Starts Decreased to 1.311 million Annual Rate in October

From the Census Bureau: Permits, Starts and Completions

Housing Starts:
Privately-owned housing starts in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,311,000. This is 3.1 percent below the revised September estimate of 1,353,000 and is 4.0 percent below the October 2023 rate of 1,365,000. Single-family housing starts in October were at a rate of 970,000; this is 6.9 percent below the revised September figure of 1,042,000. The October rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 326,000.

Building Permits:
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,416,000. This is 0.6 percent below the revised September rate of 1,425,000 and is 7.7 percent below the October 2023 rate of 1,534,000. Single-family authorizations in October were at a rate of 968,000; this is 0.5 percent above the revised September figure of 963,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 393,000 in October.
emphasis added

The first graph shows single and multi-family housing starts since 2000 (including housing bubble).

Multi-family starts (blue, 2+ units) increased month-over-month in October.   Multi-family starts were down 12.6% year-over-year. Single-family starts (red) decreased in October and were down 0.5% year-over-year.

Note that the weakness in 2022 and early 2023 had been in single family starts (red), then the weakness moved to multi-family. Multi-family starts might have bottomed earlier this year.

The second graph shows single and multi-family starts since 1968. This shows the huge collapse following the housing bubble, and then the eventual recovery - and the recent weakness.

Total housing starts in October were below expectations, however, starts in August and September were revised up, combined.

The third graph shows the month-to-month comparison for total starts between 2023 (blue) and 2024 (red).

Total starts were down 4.0% in October compared to October 2023.  The YoY decrease in October total starts was mostly due weakness in multi-family starts.

Single family starts have been up year-over-year in 13 of the last 16 months, whereas multi-family has been up year-over-year in only 2 of last 17 months. Year-to-date (YTD), total starts are down 3.2% compared to the same period in 2023. Single family starts are up 9.3% YTD, and multi-family down 29.3% YTD.

Multi-Family Housing Units Under Construction Continue to Decline

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