US total housing starts for August 2021 increased by +4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.615 million. For August 2021, total residential starts in the US shot up by +12.3% from the same month one year ago, when it was 1.416 million.
Improving further over gains throughout this year, permits for future homebuilding in August were up by +6% compared to the previous month, when it was 1.630 million, to a rate of 1.728 million units.
Indeed, August 2021 permits are up +13.5% compared to August 2020 when it was 1.522 million.
August starts of single-family housing, the largest share of the market and construction method which uses the most wood, was 1.076 million annualized, a -2.8% drop compared to July, when it was 1.107 million. Once again single-family permits were almost flat, at 1.054 million units, +0.6% above July when it was 1.048 million units.