Single Family Starts Up Year-over-year in June; Multi-Family Starts Down 23% YoY

Housing Starts Increased to 1.353 million Annual Rate in June

From the Census Bureau: Permits, Starts and Completions

Housing Starts:
Privately-owned housing starts in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,353,000. This is 3.0 percent above the revised May estimate of 1,314,000, but is 4.4 percent below the June 2023 rate of 1,415,000. Single-family housing starts in June were at a rate of 980,000; this is 2.2 percent below the revised May figure of 1,002,000. The June rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 360,000.

Building Permits:
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,446,000. This is 3.4 percent above the revised May rate of 1,399,000, but is 3.1 percent below the June 2023 rate of 1,493,000. Single-family authorizations in June were at a rate of 934,000; this is 2.3 percent below the revised May figure of 956,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 460,000 in June.
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 June compared to May. Multi-family starts were down 23.1% year-over-year. Single-family starts (red) decreased in June and were up 5.4% 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 recovered from the bottom - although single family starts have declined recently.

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 June were above expectations and starts in April and May were revised up.

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

Total starts were down 4.4% in June compared to June 2023. 

The YoY decline in total starts was due to the sharp YoY decrease in multi-family starts. Single family starts have been up YoY for 12 consecutive months.

Multi-Family Housing Units Under Construction Has Peaked

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