Briefing.com: Housing Starts

Updated: 16-Jun-26 09:21 ET

May Housing Starts

Updated: 16-Jun-26 09:21 ET

Highlights

Housing starts plummeted 15.4% month-over-month in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.177 million units (Briefing.com consensus: 1.440 million), with single-unit starts down 1.9%.
Building permits were down 0.7% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.413 million (Briefing.com consensus: 1.410 million), with single-unit permits up 0.6%.

Key Factors

The change in single-unit starts by region: Northeast (+18.5%); Midwest (+3.7%); South (-5.2%); and West (-2.3%).
The change in single-unit permits by region: Northeast (-3.6%); Midwest (+3.3%); South (+1.9%); and West (-3.8%).
Multi-unit starts plunged 40.2% month-over-month, while multi-unit permits dipped 2.8%.
The number of units under construction at the end of the period decreased 0.9% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.266 million, with single-unit dwellings down 0.3% to 587,000.

Big Picture

The key takeaway from the report is that the weakness in starts was concentrated on the multi-unit side, as starts there were down 40.2% month-over-month, yet it would be remiss not to mention that single-unit starts in the South-the largest homebuilding region-were down 5.2% month-over-month.