Single Family Starts Up 35% Year-over-year in February; Multi-Family Starts Down Sharply

Housing Starts Increased to 1.521 million Annual Rate in February

Note: The Census Bureau has not yet released the Length of Time from Authorization to Start and from Start to Completion, and I’ll send an update once it is released.

Housing Starts Increased to 1.521 million Annual Rate in February

From the Census Bureau: Permits, Starts and Completions

Housing Starts:
Privately‐owned housing starts in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,521,000. This is 10.7 percent above the revised January estimate of 1,374,000 and is 5.9 percent above the February 2023 rate of 1,436,000. Single‐family housing starts in February were at a rate of 1,129,000; this is 11.6 percent above the revised January figure of 1,012,000. The February rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 377,000.

Building Permits:
Privately‐owned housing units authorized by building permits in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,518,000. This is 1.9 percent above the revised January rate of 1,489,000 and is 2.4 percent above the February 2023 rate of 1,482,000. Single‐family authorizations in February were at a rate of 1,031,000; this is 1.0 percent above the revised January figure of 1,021,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 429,000 in February.
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 February compared to January.   Multi-family starts were down 34.8% year-over-year in February. Single-family starts (red) increased in February and were up 35.2% year-over-year.

Note that the weakness in 2022 and early 2023 had been in single family starts (red), however the weakness has moved to multi-family now while single family has bounced back from the bottom.

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 collapse and now recovery in single-family starts.

Total housing starts in February were above expectations and starts in December and January were revised up.

Last month, I noted that permits held up better than starts in January, and that housing starts were impacted by the severe weather in January. For February, permits and starts were at about the same level.

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

Total starts were up 5.9% in February compared to February 2023. 

Starts were up year-over-year for the third consecutive month, after being down year-over-year for 16 of the previous 18 months.

Multi-Family Housing Units Under Construction has Peaked