US Housing Starts Surge to Highest Level Since February

US housing starts rose 7.2% month-on-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.487 million in January 2026, up from a downwardly revised 1.387 million in December and well above forecasts of 1.35 million. This marked the third consecutive monthly increase, lifting starts to their highest level since February 2025. Multi-family starts jumped 29.1% to a four-month high of 406,000, while single-family starts slipped 2.8% to 935,000. Regionally, construction activity climbed sharply in the South (up 11.4% to 810,000) and the Northeast (47.4% to 196,000), but fell in the West (-7.5% to 307,000) and the Midwest (-10.8% to 174,000).

US housing starts rose 6.2% month-on-month to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1.404 million in December 2025, up from 1.322 million in November and well above forecasts of 1.33 million. The increase marked the second straight monthly gain, lifting starts to their highest level since July and further rebounding from October’s 15-month low. Single-family housing starts climbed 4.1% to 981,000, the strongest pace since February, while multi-family starts (five units or more) surged 10.1% to a three-month high of 402,000. Regionally, activity rose sharply in the West (up 37.4% to 334,000) and increased in the Northeast (5.6% to 152,000) and Midwest (2.3% to 177,000). In contrast, starts declined 2.8% in the South to 741,000. For the full year, an estimated 1,358,700 housing units were started in 2025, down 0.6% from 2024 and marking a fourth straight annual decline.

Housing starts in the United States fell by 4.6% from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1.246 million units, the lowest since the Covid pandemic triggered a plunge in starts in the second quarter of 2020. The decline was marked for housing with five or more units (-25.9% to 347,000), offsetting the increase for single-unit houses (5.4% to 874,000). Among different regions, starts fell sharply in the West (-21.9% to 243,000) and slightly in the Northeast (-0.6% to 154,000), offsetting increases in the South (1.2% to 650,000) and the Midwest (0.5% to 199,000).