New home building activity improved last month. Total housing starts rose 9.2% during August (9.4% y/y) to 1.282 million (AR) from 1.174 million in July, revised from 1.168 million. That followed an 11.4% June decline to 1.177 million, revised from 1.158 million. A rise to 1.240 million starts had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey.

Starts of single-family homes increased 1.9% (-0.2% y/y) last month to 876,000 units following a 1.1% July rise to 860,000. Starts of multi-family units surged 29.3% (38.1% y/y) to 406,000, the highest level since March.

The rise in starts last month was led by a 19.1% increase (2.9% y/y) in the West to 318,000, following sharp declines in three of the prior four months. Housing starts in the Midwest also firmed as they improved 9.1% (12.4% y/y) to 191,000 after a 6.7% rise. In the South, housing starts increased 6.5% (15.0% y/y) to 674,000, the highest level since January. Starts in the Northeast held steady (-7.5% y/y) at 99,000, following declines in four of the prior five months.

Building permits declined 5.7% last month (-5.5% y/y) to 1.229 million units following a 0.9% July rise. It was the lowest level of permits since May 2017. Single-family permits were off 6.1% (+2.1% y/y) to 820,000, the lowest level in twelve months. Permits to build multi-family homes dropped 4.9% (-17.7% y/y) to 409,000, the lowest level since March 2016.

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