Housing starts fell 9.8% to a rate of 1.366 million units in January after hitting a 10-month high in December 2024, according to Reuters. Economists had expected starts to fall to a rate of 1.39 million units.
Applications for building permits, a good indication of future activity, rose 0.1% to 1.483 million units in January.
Single-family housing starts fell 8.4% to a rate of 993,000 million units. Multifamily starts dropped 11% to a rate of 355,000 units. Building permits for single-family homes were unchanged at a rate of 996,000 units, and permits for multifamily homes fell 1.4% to a rate of 427,000 units.
The number of single-family houses approved for construction that were yet to be started rebounded 2.8% to 145,000 units. The completions rate for the single-family housing segment grew 7.1% to 982,000.
