Single-family housing starts rose for the second month in a row in September, the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said.    

New single-family homes were started at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,027,000, up 2.7% from 1 million in August and up 5.5% from 973,000 in September 2023. 

Multifamily residential starts fell 4.5% from August to 317,000, which is 15.7% below the year-ago level of 376,000.     

Combined, single-family and multifamily housing starts came in at a rate of 1,354,000, which represents declines of 0.5% and 0.7% on a monthly and yearly basis, respectively. 

Single-family housing completions were down 2.7% month over month but up 1.6% year over year, at a rate of 1 million, while permits for single-family construction were up 0.3% from August but down 1.2% from September 2023. 

“The housing market remains structurally underbuilt, and homeowners with locked-in low mortgage rates are keeping existing-home inventory limited,” First American Deputy Chief Economist Odeta Kushi said. “More groundbreaking is needed to bridge the gap between supply and demand.”