Total housing starts fell 4.8% to 1.155 million units (AR, -5.4% y/y) during July. That reversed most of June's rise to 1.213 million units, revised from 1.215 million. Starts of 1.220 million had been expected in the Action Economic Forecast Survey.

Last month's decline was led by a 15.3% drop in multi-family starts to 299,000 (-34.5% y/y). Single-family starts eased 0.5% to 856,000 (+11.7% y/y).

By region, starts in the Northeast declined 15.7% (-3.1% y/y) to 129,000 led by 32.6% fewer multi-family starts. In the Midwest, starts declined 15.2% (+14.0% y/y) to 179,000, also led by a 29.3% drop in multi-family starts. Starts in the West eased 1.6% (+7.0% y/y) to 315,000, where multi-family starts rose 3.6%. Starts in the South improved 0.6% to 532,000 (-17.0% y/y), though multi-family starts fell 7.9%.

Building permits declined 4.1% (+2.6% y/y) to 1.223 million from 1.275 million in June. Permits to build single-family homes held steady at 811,000 (+12.9% y/y), while multi-family permits fell 11.2% (-14.7% y/y) to 412,000.

The housing starts and permits figures can be found in Haver's USECON database. The expectations figure is contained in the AS1REPNA database.