by Calculated Risk on 5/20/2021 03:30:00 PM

Along with the monthly housing starts for April this week, the Census Bureau released Quarterly Starts by Purpose and Design through Q1 2021.

This graph shows the NSA quarterly intent for four start categories since 1975: single family built for sale, owner built (includes contractor built for owner), starts built for rent, and condos built for sale.

Click on graph for larger image.

Single family starts built for sale (red) were up 23% in Q1 2021 compared to Q1 2020.  This was the strongest first quarter since 2006.

Owner built starts (orange) were down 13% year-over-year.

Condos built for sale decreased, and are still low.

The 'units built for rent' (blue) and were down 10% in Q1 2021 compared to Q1 2020.

The housing boom has been mostly in single family homes.