The Commerce Department released this morning housing starts for August. Privately-owned starts increased by 1.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 598,000 units, market expectations were 600,000. July’s previously reported starts of 581,000 was adjusted upward to 589,000. While single-family housing starts were at a rate of 479,000 which was 3% below the revised July figure of 494,000.
Additionally Building Permit numbers were also released. Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits were at an adjusted annual rate of 579,000 which was 2.7% above the revised July rate of 564,000. While this is good data we are still 32.4% below August 2008 estimate of 857,000. Single-family permit authorizations in August were down slightly at .2% a rate of 462,000 which was below the revised July figure of 463,000
If you are interested in better understanding the relationship between Building Permits, Housing Starts and Housing completions you can visit