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

US housing starts increased 3.9% to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of  1,452,000 units.  There was an increase in single unit starts (+6.7%) and no change in multi-unit starts.  The number of residential building permits increased 0.1% to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1,442,000 units.  Permits were up for single dwellings (+0.6%) but down for structures with 2-4 dwellings (-7.7%), and down for multi-unit structures with more than 5 dwellings (-0.2%).

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

Compared to July 2022, US housing starts were up 5.9%, with increases in single dwelling starts (+9.5%) and multi-unit dwellings (+0.4%). Residential building permits were down 13.0% on increases in single units (+1.3%) and, declines in structures with 2-4 dwellings (-14.3%) and structures with 5 or more dwellings (-32.2%).  

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

Year-to-date housing starts have averaged 13.1% lower in the first seven months of 2023 than in the same period of 2022.  Starts for multi-unit dwellings were down 0.8% while starts for single dwellings fell 18.6%.  Residential building permits declined by 19.2% with year-to-date declines in all categories: single dwellings (-20.8%), structures with 2-4 dwellings (-8.0%) and structures with 5 or more dwellings (-17.3%).

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