Builders started construction of new single-family homes in July at the slowest pace since 2022, data from the Census Bureau showed Tuesday.
Single-family starts declined by 9.9 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 808,000 units. This was 15.7 percent below July of last year.
Total new home starts, including apartments and condos, dropped 12.4 percent to an annual pace of 1.239 million. This was 13.5 percent below the year-ago pace. It was the second slowest pace since June of 2020, behind the past May’s pace of 1.182 million
Despite the decline, the pace of home construction remains elevated compared to the decade before the pandemic. Home building peaked in early 2006, with housing starts hitting an annual pace of 2.273 million in January of that year. After the housing bubble burst, construction crashed, hitting a low annualized pace of 478,000 in April of 2009.
Permits for future construction of single-family homes rose 2.5 percent to a rate of 894,000 units. They were up 1.1 percent year-on-year in July. Total permit applications rose 5.0 percent to a rate of 1.443 million units. That was higher than expected.
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