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

US housing starts increased by 21.7% to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1,631,000 units.  There were increasese in both single unit starts (+18.5%) and multi-unit starts (+28.1%).  The number of residential building permits increased by 5.2% to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1,491,000 units.  Permits were up for single dwellings (+4.8%) as well as multi-unit structures with more than 5 dwellings (+7.8%), but they were down for structures with 2-4 dwellings (-10.3%).

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

Compared to May 2022, US housing starts were up 5.7%, concentrated in multi-unit dwellings (+39.6%) while single dwelling starts declined (-6.6%). Residential building permits were down 12.7% on declines in all categories: single units (-13.2%), structures with 2-4 dwellings (-13.3%) and structures with 5 or more dwellings (-11.9%). 

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

Year-to-date housing starts have averaged 16.1% lower in the first five months of 2023 than in the same months of 2022.  Starts for multi-unit dwellings were up 4.2% while starts for single dwellings fell 25.1%.  Residential building permits declined by 21.0% with year-to-date declines in all categories: single dwellings (-27.5%), structures with 2-4 dwellings (-8.0%) and structures with 5 or more dwellings (-10.4%).

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