February Housing Starts

February Housing Starts
Updated: 03-Apr-26 10:36 ET

Highlights

Total housing starts increased 7.2% month-over-month in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.487 million units (Briefing.com consensus 1.340 million), with single-unit starts down 2.8%.
Building permits decreased 5.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.376 million (Briefing.com consensus 1.392 million), with single-unit permits down 0.9%.

Key Factors

The change in single-unit starts by region: Northeast (-33.3%); Midwest (+11.7%); South (-4.6%); and West (+2.9%).
The change in single-unit permits by region: Northeast (-8.2%); Midwest (+2.5%); South (+0.8%); and West (-5.1%).
Multi-unit starts increased 29.1% month-over-month, while multi-unit permits decreased 7.6%.
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 1.268 million, with single-unit dwellings under construction falling 0.5% to 582,000.

Big Picture

The key takeaway from the report is that it beat expectations thanks to strong growth in multi-unit starts while single-unit housing starts were down 2.8% month-over-month.