United States Housing Starts

Housing starts in the United States fell by 3.1% to 1.311 million in October 2024, compared to a downwardly revised 1.353 million in September and below forecasts of 1.33 million as construction activity fell sharply in the South due to hurricanes. Still, at the forefront of a broader trend, housing starts continue to face challenges amidst an increasing inventory of new homes for sale and mortgage rates nearing 7%. Starts of single-family homes plunged 6.9%, equivalent to an annualized rate of 0.97 million while starts for houses with five units or more were up by 9.8% to 0.326 million. Among regions, starts fell in the Northeast (-32.9% to 0.110 million) and the South (-8.8% to 0.666 million) but rose in the Midwest (9.4% to 0.197 million) and the West (21.1% to 0.338 million).