Housing starts surged in August, boosted by multifamily projects

Housing starts rose 12.2% in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.575 million units, largely boosted by multifamily projects, according to reuters.com. Economists expected starts to come in at a rate of 1.445 million units.

Applications for building permits, a good indication of future activity, fell 10% to 1.517 million units in August.

Single-family housing starts rose 3.4% to a rate of 935,000 units after declining every month since March, and the rate for multifamily starts surged 28.6% to 621,000 units—the highest level since April 1986. Building permits for single-family homes declined 3.5% to a rate of 899,000 units.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was at an average of 6.02% during the week of Sept. 12, which is up from 3.22% at the beginning of 2022.

The number of houses authorized for construction but not yet started fell 2.7%, and the single-family housing backlog decreased 3.4% in August.