• Single-family starts hold steady but multi-family weakens.

• Regional changes are mixed.

• Building permits decline sharply.

Housing starts fell 1.6% during September (+7.4% y/y) to 1.555 million (SAAR) from 1.580 million in August, revised from 1.615 million. Starts have declined from 1.725 million in March. A September increase to 1.620 million starts was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey.

The decline in starts overall in September was due entirely to a 5.0% drop (+38.5% y/y) in multi-family starts to 475,000, reversing half of the August rise. Starts of single-family homes held steady in September at 1.080 million (-2.3% y/y), revised from 1.076 million. Single-family starts fell 2.9% in August and 4.2% in July. Starts last month were 13.9% below the March high.

Building permits fell 7.7% to 1.589 million in September (0.0% y/y) from 1.721 million in August, revised from 1.728 million. Permits to build single-family homes eased 0.9% (-7.1% y/y) to 1.041 million, the fifth decline in six months. Permits to build multi-family homes fell 18.3% (17.1% y/y) in September to 548,000, a decline which reversed all of an outsized August increase.

By region, housing starts fell 27.3% (-4.8% y/y) in the Northeast to 120,000 following a 139.1% August increase. Starts in the South were down 6.3% last month to 835,000 (+9.4% y/y) following a 1.0% decline. Offsetting these shortfalls was a 6.9% gain (3.3% y/y) in the Midwest to 217,000 following a 10.9% increase. Starts in the West surged 19.3% (9.7% y/y) to 383,000 after falling 21.7% in August and 7.0% in July.

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