Housing Starts: Single Family Down Year-15% over-year in July; Multi-Family Down 18% YoY

Housing Starts Decreased to 1.238 million Annual Rate in July

From the Census Bureau: Permits, Starts and Completions

Housing Starts:
Privately-owned housing starts in July were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,238,000. This is 6.8 percent below the revised June estimate of 1,329,000 and is 16.0 percent below the July 2023 rate of 1,473,000. Single-family housing starts in July were at a rate of 851,000; this is 14.1 percent below the revised June figure of 991,000. The July rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 363,000.

Building Permits:
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in July were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,396,000. This is 4.0 percent below the revised June rate of 1,454,000 and is 7.0 percent below the July 2023 rate of 1,501,000. Single-family authorizations in July were at a rate of 938,000; this is 0.1 percent below the revised June figure of 939,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 408,000 in July.
emphasis added

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

Multi-family starts (blue, 2+ units) increased in July compared to June. Multi-family starts were down 18.3% year-over-year. Single-family starts (red) decreased in July and were 14.8% year-over-year.

Note that the weakness in 2022 and early 2023 had been in single family starts (red), however the weakness then moved to multi-family - although single family starts have declined recently.

Single family starts only picked up in the Midwest and were down about the same percentage in the South, West and Northeast regions.

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 July were below expectations and starts in May and June were revised down.  A very weak report.

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

Total starts were down 16.0% in July compared to July 2023. 

The YoY decline in total starts was due to a sharp YoY decrease in both multi-family and single-family starts. Single family starts had been up YoY for 12 consecutive months, although with the revisions, single-family starts in May were down slightly year-over-year.

Multi-Family Housing Units Under Construction Continue to Decline

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