Briefing.com: Housing Starts

Updated: 17-Sep-26 09:28 ET

August Housing Starts

Updated: 17-Sep-26 09:28 ET

Highlights

Housing starts declined 2.6% month-over-month in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.275 million (Briefing.com consensus: 1.325 million), although single-unit starts were up 7.6%.
Building permits declined 2.7% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.394 million (Briefing.com consensus: 1.410 million).

Key Factors

The change in single-unit starts by region: Northeast (-2.1%); Midwest (+23.3%); South (-0.9%); and West (+28.6%).
The change in single-unit permits by region: Northeast (-7.1%); Midwest (0.0%); South (-0.6%); and West (-5.1%).
Multi-unit starts declined 21.7% month-over-month, while multi-unit permits decreased 4.3%.
The number of units under construction at the end of the period increased 0.3% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.271 million, with single-unit dwellings up 1.2% to 589,000.

Big Picture

The key takeaway from the report is that building permits-a leading indicator-were flat to down across all regions for single-unit dwellings.