US Housing Starts Fall to 4-Year Low
2024-08-16 12:44
By
Andre Joaquim
1 min. read
Housing starts in the United States fell by 6.8% from the previous month to an annualized rate of 1.238 million in July of 2024, the sharpest decline since March to the lowest level since 2020, and contrasting with the downwardly revised 1.1% increase in the previous month.
The decline was caused by a 14.1% slump in starts of buildings with one unit (to 850,000), offsetting the 11.7% increase in units with 5 or more units (to 363,000).
Among different areas of the country, housing starts fell sharply in the South (-13.6% to 640,000) and the West (-12% to 263,000), while easing in the Midwest (-1.7% to 171,000).
On the other hand, a steeper decline was prevented by an increase in the Northeast (42.6% to 164,000).