US housing starts jump 17.3% in June
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Friday 17 Jul 2020
(Sharecast News) - US housing starts rose 17.3% on the month in June, according to figures released by the Commerce Department on Friday.
Privately-owned housing starts increased to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 1.186 million from May's revised 1.011m. The figure was ahead of analysts' expectations of a level of 1.169m but 4% below June 2019's rate of 1.235m.
Meanwhile, single-family housing starts rose 17.2% from the revised May figure of 709,000 to 831,000.
Permits for new construction, which are a closely-followed gauge of future demand, were up 2.1% from the revised May rate of 1.216m to 1.241m but below expectations for a rate of 1.290m. Compared to June last year, they were 2.5% lower.
Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: "The housing market is the brightest spot in the economy, probably because most of the people who have lost their jobs due to Covid-19 are younger renters; the median age of US homebuyers is about 47.
"The surge in starts in June was spread evenly across the single- and multi-family sectors, but the headline permits number was held back by a 13.4% drop in the multi-family component, which is very erratic month-to-month. Single-family permits jumped 11.8%, the second straight double-digit gain, but at 834K in June they remain well below February's 994K peak.
"The surge in homebuilder confidence captured in the NAHB survey released yesterday, however, signals clear scope for further big increases in permits over the next few months, with starts to follow."
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