U.S. Housing Starts Post Firm Gain but Building Permits Ease

Housing starts during September increased 6.0% to 1.206 million (AR) from 1.132 million in August, last month reported as 1.126 million. During all of the third quarter, starts inched 0.5% higher versus Q2. The latest figure surpassed expectations for 1.131 million starts in the Action Economics Forecast Survey.

Last month's increase in starts was paced by an 18.3% gain (28.7% y/y) in multi-family units. Strength in multi-family starts has been notable in the Northeast (50.9% y/y), the West (42.1% y/y) and the South (38.6% y/y). Multi-family starts in the Midwest were off 47.2% y/y during September. Starts of single-family units nudged just 0.3% higher but remained up 11.1% y/y. Here again, activity in the Midwest was weak as single-family starts fell 4.4% y/y. That compared to a 20.5% y/y rise in the West, a 14.7% gain in the South and a 4.2% rise in the Northeast.

Permits to build housing units retreated 5.0% (+4.4% y/y) to 1.103 million. They were down 17.5% from a June peak. Weakness was notable in the multi-family sector where permits fell 12.1% (+1.1% y/y). Declines occurred throughout most of the country. Single-family permits also eased 0.3% (+6.6% y/y), reflecting shortfalls in the Northeast and West.

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