Housing starts rose 3.9% in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.452 million units, according to Reuters. Economists expected starts to rise to 1.448 million units; the June rate was revised from 1.434 million units to 1.398 million units.
Applications for building permits, a good indication of future activity, rose 0.1% to 1.442 million units in July.
Single-family housing starts rose 6.7% to a rate of 983,000 units, and multifamily starts were unchanged at a rate of 460,000 units. Building permits for single-family homes climbed 0.6% to a rate of 930,000 units, and permits for multifamily homes fell 0.2% to a rate of 464,000 units—the lowest since October 2020.
