U.S. Housing Starts Decline Sharply in March; Building Permits Edge Higher
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
- Single-family starts plunge; multi-family weakens as well.
- Starts decline in West & South.
- Permits rise modestly after several months of decline.
Total housing starts weakened 11.4% (+1.9% y/y) in March to 1.324 million units (SAAR) after rising 9.8% in February to 1.494 million units, revised from 1.501 million units, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected 1.418 million starts. Single-family starts declined 14.2% (-9.7% y/y) to 940,000 in March after rising 9.5% to 1.096 million in February. Multi-family starts weakened 3.5% (+48.8% y/y) to 384,000, following a 10.6% February drop. Total starts in March were 27.6% below their peak of 1.828 million units reached in April 2022.
Starts declined in two of the four major regions in March. They fell 30.9% (-8.8% y/y) in the West to 289,000, following an 8.0% February increase. In the South, starts declined 17.1% (-8.1% y/y) to 673,000 after rising 16.5% in February. Starts in the Midwest increased 76.2% (44.2% y/y) to 222,000 after falling 30.8% in February. In the Northeast, starts improved 1.4% (45.8% y/y) to 140,000 following a 45.3% February increase.
Building permits increased 1.6% (-0.2% y/y) to 1.482 million units in March after three straight months of modest declines. Single-family permits fell 2.0% (-0.6% y/y) in March to 978,000 after edging 0.4% higher in February. Multi-family permits strengthened 9.3% (0.6% y/y). Permits rose 4.3% (-17.1% y/y) in the Northeast and were up 5.8% (-8.5% y/y) in the West. They increased 3.0% (4.5% y/y) in the South. Building permits in the Midwest declined 9.5% (+7.4% y/y).
The housing starts and building permits figures can be found in Haver’s USECON database. The expectations figure is contained in the AS1REPNA database.
Tom Moeller
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Prior to joining Haver Analytics in 2000, Mr. Moeller worked as the Economist at Chancellor Capital Management from 1985 to 1999. There, he developed comprehensive economic forecasts and interpreted economic data for equity and fixed income portfolio managers. Also at Chancellor, Mr. Moeller worked as an equity analyst and was responsible for researching and rating companies in the economically sensitive automobile and housing industries for investment in Chancellor’s equity portfolio. Prior to joining Chancellor, Mr. Moeller was an Economist at Citibank from 1979 to 1984. He also analyzed pricing behavior in the metals industry for the Council on Wage and Price Stability in Washington, D.C. In 1999, Mr. Moeller received the award for most accurate forecast from the Forecasters' Club of New York. From 1990 to 1992 he was President of the New York Association for Business Economists. Mr. Moeller earned an M.B.A. in Finance from Fordham University, where he graduated in 1987. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from George Washington University.
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