Privately owned housing starts fell 4% in July to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.19 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The rate is 0.6% above the July 2018 housing start rate. Regionally, year-over-year starts increased 3.7% in the South, but fell 5.7%, 7.9% and 12.3% in the Northeast, Midwest and West, respectively.
July building permits rose 8.4% compared with June to reach a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.3 million. Permits grew 1.5% year-over-year.
“Permits bottomed out in April and single-family starts hit their low point in May, and now we are starting to see the gradual improvement in the market that we’ve been forecasting,” National Association of Home Builders Chief Economist Robert Dietz stated.
Housing completions jumped 7.2% in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.2 million, a 6.3% jump compared with July 2018.
