Publish date:

Feb 16, 2018

Housing Starts Surge Unevenly: Surprised? Why?

Housing starts jumped 9.7% but the surge was primarily in the South, and primarily multi-family.

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Housing starts jumped 9.7% but the surge was primarily in the South, and primarily multi-family.

Here are the numbers from the Census Bureau's New Residential Construction Report.

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Housing starts surged 9.7%, with single-family starts up 3.7%.

Single-family starts were up in the South, the largest region, and Northeast, the smallest region, but down in the Midwest and West.

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Five unit or more starts were up a whopping 19.7%.

Everyone seems surprised by the number. Is it that surprising? Let's take another look at recent New Home Sales.

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Logic would dictate that a surge in starts would follow the surge in sales.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock

Housing starts rose 13.7 percent from September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 1.290 million. This is the fastest pace since October 2016. The number of units is 2.9% below the 1.328 million estimate a year ago.

Seasonally-adjusted housing starts jumped 19.9% to a 13-year high. Housing permits fell 3.9%

Housing starts rose 1.9 percent in March led by multi-family. Single-family starts dipped 3.7 percent.

Housing starts rebounded in December but the strength is entirely in multi-family units.

For the fourth consecutive month, housing stats provided a wild ride. For December, starts rose 11.3%, but that was thanks to a 57% jump in multi-family.

Housing starts broke a spell of abysmal economic reports. Housing permits are mixed with single-family permits lower.

Housing starts pulled back a bit more than economists expected in April. Regionally, only the South had a good month.

Housing starts took a huge dive in March. April rates to be much worse.

Today's construction report shows permits fell 0.6%, single-family starts fell 1.8%, but multi-family starts rose 1.6%.

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