United States Housing Starts

Last Release

Mar 31, 2024

Actual

1,321

Units In

Thousand units

1,549

Frequency

Monthly

Next Release

May 16, 2024

Time to Release

29 Days 2 Hours

Highest	Lowest	Average	Date Range	Source
2,494 Jan 1972	478 Apr 2009	1,433.37 Thousand units	1959-2024	U.S. Census Bureau

Housing Starts refer to the number of new residential construction projects that have begun during any particular month. Estimates of housing starts include units in structures being totally rebuilt on an existing foundation.

Latest Updates

Housing starts in the US plunged 14.7% month-over-month to an annualized rate of 1.321 million in March 2024, reversing from an upwardly revised 1.549 million level in February and well below forecasts of 1.48 million. It is the lowest reading since August and the biggest decline since April 2020, as a rise in mortgage rates weighed on potential buyers. Single-family housing starts moved down 12.4% to 1.022 million, and the rate for units in buildings with five units dropped 20.8% to 290 thousand. Starts fell in the Northeast (-36% to 80 thousand), the Midwest (-23% to 157 thousand), and the South (-17.8% to 736 thousand) but rose in the West (7.1% to 348 thousand).