U.♛S. housing starts rose in July as a surge in single-family building more than offset a decline in multifamily starts. The trend may be short-live𒊎d, however, as mortgage rates and building permit data show a looming decline is likely.

Mortgage Rates Delay Thaw in Housing Market

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts rose 3.9% in July to 1.45 million units. However, 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:building permits, a more forward-loo𝓀king indicator, were little changed as a small increase꧑ in single-family permits offset a decline in multi-family permits.

Although single-family starts have been more resilient, recent mortgage ra𓂃te increases may dampen them, e🐠conomists said.

"Few Americans are in a position to buy, as mortgage applications continue to drop mainly due to high mortgage rates, which hit 7.16% today—the highest since 2001," said Robert Frick, corporate economist with Navy Federal Credit Union.

New Residential Construction Up

According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, privately‐owned housing units authorized by building permits in July were 0.1% above the revised June rate of 1.4 million but 13% below the July 2022 rate of 1.66 million. 

Privately‐owned housing starts in July were about 3.9% above the revised June estimate of 1.4 million and about 5.9% above the year prior's rate of 1.37 million. Privately‐owned houses were completed at a rate about 11.8% below the revised June estimate of 1.5 million and about 5.4% below the prior year.

About 1.02 million single-family homes were completed in July, about 1.3% above the revised June rate of 1 million. The July completion rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 297,000.