United States Housing Starts

US housing starts dropped sharply by 9.8% month-over-month in May 2025 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.256 million units, down from an upwardly revised 1.392 million in April and well below market expectations of 1.36 million. This marked the weakest level since May 2020, in the early aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, as high mortgage rates and an elevated supply of homes for sale dampened builder sentiment and construction activity. Starts for multi-family buildings with five or more units plummeted 30.4% to 316,000 units, while single-family starts—the largest segment of homebuilding—edged up just 0.4% to 924,000 units. Regionally, housing starts declined sharply in the Northeast (-40.0% to 105,000 units), Midwest (-10.2% to 184,000), and South (-10.5% to 693,000), but rose in the West (+15.1% to 274,000).