housing

Housing Starts Split in August as Builders Ration by Rate Sensitivity

Published September 18, 20263 min read

A sunlit single-family house frame under construction beside a shadowed, idle apartment building frame in the background — Single-family construction pushed ahead in August even as apartment building stalled — a split in the Census starts data that mirrors the divide between rate-sensitive renters and buyers. Illustration: MarketIntelLabs

Homebuilders broke ground on 1.275 million homes at a seasonally adjusted annual rate in August, the Census Bureau reported Thursday, down 2.6 percent from July's 1.309 million and 1.2 percent below August 2025. The headline understates the story. Single-family starts rose 7.6 percent to 918,000, the strongest month since March, while the apartment category collapsed 21.7 percent, from 456,000 to 357,000.

Key Takeaways Total housing starts ran at a 1.275 million annual rate in August, down 2.6 percent from July and 1.2 percent from a year earlier, per Census Bureau data released September 18. Single-family starts rose 7.6 percent to 918,000 annualized, while the five-unit apartment category f…

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