August Housing Starts

August Housing Starts
Updated: 24-Nov-25 16:50 ET

Highlights

Total housing starts declined 8.5% month-over-month in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.307 million (Briefing.com consensus: 1.375 million) from a revised 1.429 million (from 1.428 million) in July.
Building permits declined 3.7% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.312 million (Briefing.com consensus: 1.370 million) from an unrevised 1.362 million in July.

Key Factors

The change in single-unit starts by region: Northeast (+42.3%); Midwest (+8.2%); South (-17.0%); and West (+1.6%).
The change in single-unit permits by region: Northeast (-1.8%); Midwest (+1.6%); South (-1.5%); and West (-6.9%). Multi-unit starts declined 11.7% month-over-month, while multi-unit permits decreased 6.4% month-over-month.
The number of units under construction at the end of the period dropped 1.5% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.317 million, with single-unit dwellings under construction sliding 2.1% to 611,000.

Big Picture

The key takeaway from the report is the weakness in single-unit starts (-7.0% month-over-month) and single-unit permits (-2.2%), which is a reflection of affordability constraints for builders and prospective homeowners alike. Strikingly, single-unit starts in the South—the nation's largest homebuilding region—plunged 17.0% in August.