New single-family home construction swung back to positive territory in July after falling in June, the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said in a press release. 

Specifically, overall housing starts, which include multifamily dwellings, rose 3.9% month over month and 5.9% year over year to 1,452,000. Single-family homes were built at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 983,000, up 6.7% from a downwardly revised pace of 921,000 in June and up 9.5% from 898,000 in July 2022. Multifamily residences, meanwhile, came in at 460,000, the same as June and up 0.4% from 458,000 a year before.   

Meanwhile, single-family permits, a leading indicator of future new-home supply, rose 0.6% month over month and 1.3% year over year to 924,000 units, while single-family completions rose 1.3% month over month and 1.4% year over year to an annual rate of 1,018,000.              

“Higher mortgage rates threaten affordability and builder supply-side challenges remain, but the housing market remains fundamentally underbuilt, and existing homeowners aren’t moving,” First American Deputy Chief Economist Odeta Kushi said. “While builders can’t make existing homeowners move, they can add more new homes to the housing stock.”