Similar Number of Housing Units started in Q1 as 'Built-for-Rent' as 'Built-for-Sale'

Quarterly Housing Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design

Along with the monthly housing starts report for April this week, the Census Bureau released Housing Units Started by Purpose and Design through Q1 2023.

This graph shows the NSA quarterly intent for four start categories since 1975: single family built for sale, owner built (includes contractor built for owner), starts built for rent, and multi-family built for sale.

Single family starts ‘built for sale (red) were down 33% in Q1 2023 compared to Q1 2022. And owner built starts (orange) were down 22% year-over-year. Multi-family ‘built for sale’ decreased and are still low.

The 'units built for rent' (blue) and were up 8% in Q1 2023 compared to Q1 2022. The number of ‘built-for-rent’ units in Q1 was almost the same number as ‘built-for-sale’. Last quarter, Q4 2022, was the first time since this series started in 1974, that there were more units built-for-rent started than single family units built-for-sale started.