Housing starts during July jumped 15.7% to 1,093,000 AR (21.7% y/y) following a 4.0% June decline to 945,000, revised from 893,000. The latest level was the highest since November and easily beat expectations for 965,000 starts in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Last month's increase reflected a 28.9% rebound (44.7% y/y) in starts of multi-family homes after two months of sharp decline. Also improving were starts of single-family homes, up 8.3% (10.1% y/y). That also followed two months of decline.

A 44.0% rebound (26.3% y/y) in starts in the Northeast led last month's total increase. That was followed by a 29.0% rise (27.4% y/y) in the South; the West posted an 18.6% increase (23.4% y/y). Working 24.8% lower (+1.9% y/y) were starts in the Midwest.

Building permits improved 8.1% (7.7% y/y) to the highest level since April. The gain was led by a 21.5% rebound (14.1% y/y) in multi-family permits. Permits to build single-family homes inched 0.9% higher (3.9% y/y) to the highest level since November.

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