by Calculated Risk on 9/18/2019 08:40:00 AM

From the Census Bureau: Permits, Starts and Completions

Housing Starts:
Privately‐owned housing starts in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,364,000. This is 12.3 percent above the revised July estimate of 1,215,000 and is 6.6 percent above the August 2018 rate of 1,279,000. Single‐family housing starts in August were at a rate of 919,000; this is 4.4 percent above the revised July figure of 880,000. The August rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 424,000.

Building Permits:
Privately‐owned housing units authorized by building permits in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,419,000. This is 7.7 percent above the revised July rate of 1,317,000 and is 12.0 percent above the August 2018 rate of 1,267,000. Single‐family authorizations in August were at a rate of 866,000; this is 4.5 percent above the revised July figure of 829,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 509,000 in August.
emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image.

The first graph shows single and multi-family housing starts for the last several years.

Multi-family starts (red, 2+ units) were up in August compared to July.   Multi-family starts were down 13.7% year-over-year in August.

Multi-family is volatile month-to-month, and  has been mostly moving sideways the last several years.

Single-family starts (blue) increased in August, and were up 3.4% year-over-year.

The second graph shows total and single unit starts since 1968.

The second graph shows the huge collapse following the housing bubble, and then eventual recovery (but still historically low).

Total housing starts in August were above expectations, and starts for June and July were revised up combined.  A strong report.

I'll have more later …