Housing starts overall have dropped month-over-month, but single-family construction is on the rise. According to the Calculated Risk blog, the rate of privately-owned housing starts was 1.35 million in September, slightly down by 0.5% from August and 0.7% lower than the same month last year. Single-family housing starts, however, increased by 2.7% from August to September, reaching 1.03 million. Meanwhile, construction starts for buildings with five or more units stood at 317,000.
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in September were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,428,000. This is 2.9 percent below the revised August rate of 1,470,000 and is 5.7 percent below the September 2023 rate of 1,515,000. Single-family authorizations in September were at a rate of 970,000; this is 0.3 percent above the revised August figure of 967,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 398,000 in September.
