Nation's Building News Online

Housing Starts Remain Strong in June

The nation’s housing industry churned out more good economic news in June, when home starts climbed 3.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.8 million units, according to a report from the Commerce Department on July 17.

Single-family housing starts last month continued to outperform the multifamily sector, which has been experiencing modest declines as renters have been encouraged by remarkably low mortgage interest rates to seek home buying opportunities.

Single-family production in June climbed 5.3% to an annual rate of 1.46 million units, while multifamily housing declined by 2.6% from the prior month to a rate of 341,000 units.

“Housing continues to do the heavy lifting in an otherwise sluggish economy,” said NAHB President Kent Conine.

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Although mortgage interest rates have begun nudging up in recent weeks, Conine noted that demand is persistently strong and the inventory of new homes for sale has reached an all-time low supply of 3.5 months.

Along with a further increase in building permits in June, those factors suggest that “the outlook for housing for the remainder of the year remains bright,” Conine said.

“People are viewing housing as a good place to put their money because of low interest rates and sold house-price performance,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders.

“This pace of activity should continue throughout the summer even as interest rates begin to inch up,” he predicted.

Regionally, the Northeast posted a 9.9% increase in housing production in June, followed by gains of 8% in the West and 2.3% in the South. June housing starts declined by 0.8% in the Midwest.
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