• Single-family starts decline but multi-family improves.

• Regional changes are mixed.

• Building permits recover.

Housing starts eased 0.7% (+0.4% y/y) during October to 1.520 million (SAAR) from 1.530 in September, revised from 1.555 million. Starts have declined 11.9% from a high of 1.725 million in March. An October level of 1.580 million starts was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey.

The slip in starts overall in October was due to a 3.9% drop (-10.6% y/y) in single-family starts to 1.039 million. It was the fourth consecutive monthly decline and left single-family starts 21.0% below the December 2020 peak. Starts of multi-family homes improved 7.1% (36.6% y/y) to 481,000. Multi-family starts have risen 39.0% so far this year.

Building permits increased 4.0% (3.4% y/y) to 1.650 million from 1.586 million in September, revised from 1.589 million. Permits to build single-family homes gained 2.7% (-6.3% y/y) to 1.069 million following five declines in the prior six months. Permits to build multi-family homes rose 6.6% (28.0% y/y) in October to 581,000 following an 18.8% decline during September.

By region, housing starts fell 0.8% (+45.2% y/y) in the Northeast to 122,000 following a 25.9% September drop. Starts in the South were down 1.0% (-5.7% y/y) to 792,000 after falling 9.5% in September. Starts in the West fell 3.3% (-0.5% y/y) to 380,000 after a 20.2% increase in September. Partially offsetting these declines was a 5.6% (8.7% y/y) rise in starts in the Midwest to 226,000 following a 9.2% increase.

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