US housing starts jumped 19 percent in June on apartments, while permits fell

The headline number jumped. Privately-owned housing starts ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,427,000 in June, 19.0 percent above the revised May figure of 1,199,000 and 3.5 percent above a year earlier, the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported. Almost all of the gain was multifamily. Single-family starts, at 895,000, slipped 0.2 percent from May, a change the Census Bureau notes falls within its margin of error, while starts of buildings with five or more units ran at 513,000. Building permits, which tend to lead starts, moved the other way: total permits fell 3.0 percent to 1,367,000 and single-family permits fell 2.4 percent to 871,000. Completions rose 3.3 percent to 1,392,000. The monthly starts series is volatile and heavily revised, and the reported 19.0 percent swing carries a confidence interval of plus or minus 15.9 percent. The July report is due August 18.