Housing Starts Decreased to 1.324 million Annual Rate in March

by Calculated Risk on 4/17/2025 08:40:00 AM

From the Census Bureau: Permits, Starts and Completions

Housing Starts:
Privately-owned housing starts in March were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,324,000. This is 11.4 percent below the revised February estimate of 1,494,000, but is 1.9 percent above the March 2024 rate of 1,299,000. Single-family housing starts in March were at a rate of 940,000; this is 14.2 percent below the revised February figure of 1,096,000. The March rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 371,000.

Building Permits:
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in March were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of
1,482,000. This is 1.6 percent above the revised February rate of 1,459,000, but is 0.2 percent below the March
2024 rate of 1,485,000. Single-family authorizations in March were at a rate of 978,000; this is 2.0 percent below
the revised February figure of 998,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of
445,000 in March.

emphasis added

The first graph shows single and multi-family housing starts since 2000.

Multi-family starts (blue, 2+ units) decreased month-over-month in March.   Multi-family starts were up sharply year-over-year (March 2024 was very weak).

Single-family starts (red) decreased in March and were down 9.7% year-over-year.

The second graph shows single and multi-family housing starts since 1968.

This shows the huge collapse following the housing bubble, and then the eventual recovery – and the recent collapse and recovery in single-family starts.

Total housing starts in March were well below expectations; however, starts in January and February were revised up slightly, combined.

I’ll have more later …