US housing starts for June surged 4.8 per cent to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.19 million units, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday. May’s starts were revised down to a 1.14 million-unit pace from the previously reported 1.16 million-unit pace.
US Housing Starts
Housing starts in 2Q were a touch higher than the average for the first three months of the year, suggesting that residential construction was probably a small boost to gross domestic product in the second quarter.
Groundbreaking on single-family homes increased 4.4 per cent to a 778,000-unit pace in June. Single-family starts in the South, where most home building takes place, gained 0.5 per cent.
Single-family starts jumped 31.6 per cent in the Northeast and climbed 3.1 per cent in West. Groundbreaking on single-family housing projects in-
creased 7.3 per cent in the Midwest. Single-family starts are up 13.2 per cent in the first six months of 2016, compared with a year ago. Multi-unit starts starts of fell by 3.9 per cent in the year- to-date from the same period in 2015 to 573,000, the highest since 1974. Building permits increased 1.5 per cent to a 1.15 million-unit rate last month. Permits for the construction of single-family homes increased 1 per cent last month to a 738,000-unit rate, while multifamily building permits advanced 2.5 per cent to a 415,000-unit pace.