Single-family housing starts experienced a rebound in August; however, production has declined by 4.7% year-to-date as builders navigate economic uncertainty, labor and lot shortages, and increasing construction costs.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau have reported that the overall rate of housing starts decreased by 2.6% in August, reaching a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.28 million units.
This pace is indicative of the number of housing units that builders would construct over the next 12 months if August’s activity were to persist.
Single-family starts, which were up 5.2% from August 2025, increased 7.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 918,000 units within this aggregate number.
The annualized pace of the multifamily sector, which encompasses apartment buildings and condominiums, decreased by 21.7% to 357,000 units, a 14.6% decrease from the previous year.
On a year-to-date basis, the Northeast experienced a 10% increase in combined single-family and multifamily starts, while the Midwest experienced a 0.4% decrease, the South experienced a 2.4% decrease, and the West experienced a 3% decrease.
In August, the annualized rate of permits decreased by 2.7% to 1.39 million units.
The rate of single-family permits decreased by 1.8% to 878,000 units, but it was up by 1.3% in comparison to August 2025.
The annualized pace of multifamily permits decreased by 4.3% to 516,000, but they were up 7.5% from the previous year.
Total permits were 12.5% higher in the Northeast, 2.7% higher in the Midwest, 3.5% lower in the South, and 1.7% higher in the West when regional permit data was analyzed on a year-to-date basis.
The Midwest has demonstrated resilience in the area of single-family permits, with a 2.9% increase year-to-date.
Conversely, the Northeast, South, and West continue to experience declines.
Our most recent builder surveys indicate that builders are still cautious about future construction, as evidenced by the year-to-date declines in single-family permits.
In August, the total number of housing units under construction was 1.27 million, a 3.2% decrease from the previous year.
The total number of single-family residences under construction was 589,000, which represents a 3.4% decrease from the previous year.
The number of multifamily units under construction has decreased to 682,000, a 3% decrease from the previous year and a significant distance from the peak of over 1 million units in December 2023.
The pace of housing completions also continued to decline.
The annual rate of single-family completions decreased by 22.9% from the previous year, to 816,000 units.
The velocity of multifamily completions for buildings with five or more units decreased by 35.7% year over year, resulting in a total of 302,000 units.
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