August Housing Starts, Building Permits Disappoint

The Commerce Department said on Tuesday housing starts in the U.S. came in at an annual rate of 1.142 million in August, missing the estimate for 1.190 million. Groundbreaking decreased across the board by 5.8% after two consecutive months of increases, and July’s starts were unrevised at a 1.21 million-unit pace.

Housing starts on single-family homes fell sharply by 6.0% to a 722,000-unit pace, the lowest level measured since last October. Worth noting, as permits for the construction of single-family homes rise, single-family home building could rebounds in the future.

Single-family home construction plummeted 13.8% in the Northeast and fell 13.1 percent in the South, while starts rose in the West and Midwest. Housing starts for the volatile multi-family segment fell 5.4% to a 420,000-unit pace.

Meanwhile, building permits, which are a sign of future activity, fell 0.4% to an annual rate of 1.139 million, missing the estimate for 1.170 million. The volatile multi-family homes segment tanked by 7.2% to an annual rate of 402,000 units. However, permits for single-family homes, which represents the largest segment of the market, increased 3.7% to a 737,000-unit pace.