Single-family housing completions decreased by 5.6% in August. Credit: Josue Isai Ramos Figueroa via Unsplash.

US single-family housing starts have significantly increased by 15.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 992,000 units in August 2024, according to the latest statistics from the US Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The data also indicated that single-family project starts rose 5.2% from a year ago.

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Privately owned housing starts in August climbed to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,356,000. This represents a 9.6% increase from July’s revised estimate and is 3.9% higher than the rate in August 2023.  

While there’s a notable rise in housing starts compared to the previous year, building permits have also seen an increase.

In August, the seasonally adjusted annual rate for privately owned housing units authorised by building permits reached 1,475,000, marking a 4.9% increase from the revised July rate of 1,406,000.

However, this figure is still 6.5% lower than the August 2023 rate of 1,578,000.

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Single-family authorisations rose to 967,000, a 2.8% increase from July’s revised figure of 941,000. Authorisations for units in buildings with five or more units were reported at 451,000.

Privately owned housing completions in August exhibited a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,788,000, which is 9.2% higher than July’s revised estimate and a substantial 30.2% increase from August 2023.

Despite these gains, single-family housing completions decreased by 5.6% to a rate of 1,029,000. Units in buildings with five or more units had a completion rate of 740,000 for the month.

National Association of Home Builders forecasting and analysis assistant vice-president Danushka Nanayakkara-Skillington said: “With the Federal Reserve expected to begin the first of a series of rate reductions today, the loosening monetary policy over the coming months will boost new home building by lowering the construction loan rates for builders.

“The rise in single-family permits is further good news for the industry, which was hit hard by tight monetary policy in the first half of this year.”