Month over month (June 2023 vs May 2023, seasonally adjusted annualized rates) 

US housing starts declined 8.0% to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1,434,000 units.  There were declines in both single unit starts (-7.0%) and multi-unit starts (-11.6%).  The number of residential building permits declined 3.7% to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1,440,000 units.  Permits were up for single dwellings (+2.2%) but down for structures with 2-4 dwellings (-5.6%), and for multi-unit structures with more than 5 dwellings (-13.5%).

Year over year (June 2023 vs June 2022, seasonally adjusted annualized rates)                                                             

Compared to June 2022, US housing starts were down 8.1%, with declines in single dwelling starts (-7.4%) and multi-unit dwellings (-11.2%). Residential building permits were down 15.3% on declines in all categories: single units (-2.7%), structures with 2-4 dwellings (-7.3%) and structures with 5 or more dwellings (-33.1%). 

Year to date (January-June 2023 vs January-June 2022)

Year-to-date housing starts have averaged 15.5% lower in the first half of 2023 than in the same period of 2022.  Starts for multi-unit dwellings were down 0.9% while starts for single dwellings fell 22.2%.  Residential building permits declined by 20.1% with year-to-date declines in all categories: single dwellings (-23.9%), structures with 2-4 dwellings (-7.3%) and structures with 5 or more dwellings (-14.6%).

Source: US Census Bureau New Residential Construction, retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.