by Calculated Risk on 5/16/2024 08:32:00 AM

From the Census Bureau: Permits, Starts and Completions

Housing Starts:
Privately‐owned housing starts in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,360,000. This is 5.7 percent above the revised March estimate of 1,287,000, but is 0.6 percent below the April 2023 rate of 1,368,000. Single‐family housing starts in April were at a rate of 1,031,000; this is 0.4 percent below the revised March figure of 1,035,000. The April rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 322,000.

Building Permits:
Privately‐owned housing units authorized by building permits in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,440,000. This is 3.0 percent below the revised March rate of 1,485,000 and is 2.0 percent below the April 2023 rate of 1,470,000. Single‐family authorizations in April were at a rate of 976,000; this is 0.8 percent below the revised March figure of 984,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 408,000 in April.
emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image.

The first graph shows single and multi-family housing starts since 2000.

Multi-family starts (blue, 2+ units) increased in April compared to March.   Multi-family starts were down 33.1% year-over-year.

Single-family starts (red) decreased slightly in April and were up 17.7% year-over-year.

The second graph shows single and multi-family housing starts since 1968.

This shows the huge collapse following the housing bubble, and then the eventual recovery - and the recent collapse and recovery in single-family starts.

Total housing starts in April were above expectations, however, starts in February and March were revised down.

I'll have more later …