Housing starts during January edged 2.0% lower to 1.065 million from 1.087 million in December, revised from 1.089 million. Still, starts remained near the highest level in roughly seven years. Earlier figures were revised slightly and the latest number roughly matched expectations for 1.067 million starts in the Action Economics Forecast Survey.

Single-family starts fell 6.7% to 678,000 (+16.3 y/y) versus the cycle-high of 727,000 reached in December. The decline was countered by a 7.5% increase in multi-family starts to 387,000 (23.2 y/y).

Housing starts in the Midwest declined 22.2% (+125.8% y/y) to 140,000. Starts in Northeast followed with a 3.5% decline (-4.3% y/y) to 111,000. Starts in the West were off 3.4% to 286,000 (+21.7% y/y) but starts in the South gained 6.5% (9.1% y/y) to 528,000.

Building permits edged 0.7% lower (+8.1 y/y) to 1.053 million from 1.060 million. Single-family permits declined 3.1% (+5.8% y/y) to 654,000 but multi-family permits rose 3.6% (12.1 y/y) to 399,000.

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

The minutes of the latest FOMC meeting can be found here.