Haver Resources
Jun 16

U.S. Housing Starts Fall Sharply in May

Starts level is lowest since April 2021.

Both single- & multi-family weaken.

Building permits fall to eight-month low..

New residential building activity is feeling the pressure from rising interest rates. Housing starts declined 14.4% during May (-3.5% y/y) to 1.549 million units (SAAR) from 1.810 units in April, revised from 1.724 million. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected 1.71 million starts.

Single-family starts declined 9.2% (-5.3% y/y) last month to 1.051 million units from 1.157 million in April, revised from 1.100 million. Starts of multi-family units weakened 23.7% (+0.6% y/y) to 498,000 from 653,000.

By region, housing starts were mixed last month. Starts in the South declined 20.7% (-0.7% y/y) to 803,000. In the West, housing starts fell 17.8% (-10.1% y/y) to 356,000. Elsewhere, starts firmed. In the Northeast, starts surged 14.6% (26.3% y/y) to 173,000. Starts in the Midwest rose 1.9% (-17.5% y/y) to 217,000.

Building permits declined 7.0% (+0.2% y/y) to 1.695 million from 1.823 million in April. Permits to build single-family homes declined 5.5% (-7.9% y/y) in May to 1.048 million units. Permits to build multi-family weakened 9.4% (+17.0% y/y) to 647,000.

The housing starts and permits figures can be found in Haver’s USECON database. The expectations figure is contained in the AS1REPNA database.

About The Author

Haver Analytics is pleased to bring Thomas J. Moeller’s commentaries on the state of the U.S. economy to its clients.

Mr. Moeller worked as the Economist at Chancellor Capital Management from 1985 to 1999. There, he developed comprehensive economic forecasts and interpreted economic data for equity and fixed income portfolio managers. Also at Chancellor, Mr. Moeller worked as an equity analyst and was responsible for researching and rating companies in the economically sensitive automobile and housing industries for investment in Chancellor’s equity portfolio. Prior to joining Chancellor, Mr. Moeller was an Economist at Citibank from 1979 to 1984. He also analyzed pricing behavior in the metals industry for the Council on Wage and Price Stability in Washington, D.C. In 1999, Mr. Moeller received the award for most accurate forecast from the Forecasters’ Club of New York. From 1990 to 1992 he was President of the New York Association for Business Economists. Mr. Moeller earned an M.B.A. in Finance from Fordham University, where he graduated in 1987. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from George Washington University.