Overall Housing Starts Fell 5.5% In May

Overall housing starts fell 5.5% in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.28 million units as high interest rates for construction and development loans and mortgage rates held back housing supply and demand.

A report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found single-family starts decreased by 5.2% and the multifamily sector decreased 6.6% from April to May. This is the lowest pace for apartment construction since April 2020.

On a regional and year-over-year basis, single-family and multifamily starts were 22.2% lower in the Northeast, 8.0% lower in the Midwest, 2.3% lower in the South and 2.6% higher in the West, according to HUD.