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New Residential Construction · Housing units authorized, started and completed, seasonally adjusted annual rate

How many new homes does the United States authorize, start and finish?

The month ended : of the 9 lines, the change over a year was largest for Single-family starts, up 2.6%, and smallest for Starts in buildings of 5 units or more, down 25.9%.

Housing units authorized, started and completed, starts, each month

September 2016 to September 2026Seasonally adjusted, as publishedEach row has a scale of its own, printed under its nameNo picture is made of these rows; their numbers are in the table

Housing units authorized, started and completed, starts, each month, one row for each measure
  • Housing starts1,221936 to 1,807
  • Single-family starts859688 to 1,273
  • Starts in buildings of 5 units or more349233 to 629

Housing units authorized, started and completed, permits, each month

September 2016 to September 2026Seasonally adjusted, as publishedEach row has a scale of its own, printed under its nameNo picture is made of these rows; their numbers are in the table

Housing units authorized, started and completed, permits, each month, one row for each measure
  • Building permits1,3981,079 to 1,923
  • Single-family permits846664 to 1,247
  • Permits for buildings of 5 units or more501377 to 761

Housing units authorized, started and completed, completions, each month

September 2016 to September 2026Seasonally adjusted, as publishedEach row has a scale of its own, printed under its nameNo picture is made of these rows; their numbers are in the table

Housing units authorized, started and completed, completions, each month, one row for each measure
  • Housing completions1,1921,035 to 1,733
  • Single-family completions840739 to 1,132
  • Completions in buildings of 5 units or more339271 to 705

Each row is one line of the page over the last ten years, one month to a point, on a scale of its own, with its newest value and its range printed beside it and a dashed line at zero. A gap is a month with no value. Pointing at the chart shows the month and the value.

Observed .

Right now

Over a year to September 2026, of the 9 lines on this page the change was largest for Single-family starts, up 2.6%, and smallest for Starts in buildings of 5 units or more, down 25.9%.

Of these lines, 2 rose, 7 fell and 0 did not change over the year (ours, from the published values).

See every line with its value and rank

By lineOver a year, ours

Housing units authorized, started and completed, change over a year, by line

September 2025 to September 2026Percent, ours, from the published values

  • 1 Single-family starts +2.6% now 859 thousand
  • 2 Permits for buildings of 5 units or more +0.6% now 501 thousand
  • 3 Building permits −3.2% now 1,398 thousand
  • 4 Single-family permits −4.7% now 846 thousand
  • 5 Housing starts −7.4% now 1,221 thousand
  • 6 Single-family completions −11.0% now 840 thousand
  • 7 Housing completions −14.0% now 1,192 thousand
  • 8 Completions in buildings of 5 units or more −20.4% now 339 thousand
  • 9 Starts in buildings of 5 units or more −25.9% now 349 thousand
  • Starts
  • Permits
  • Completions

Each bar is the change in one line over a year, the largest first, with its rank at the left and its newest value under the figure. A line with its own page links it from its name. A change below zero runs to the left of the zero line. The colour says which section of the page a line is in.

Observed .

Housing units authorized, started and completed, change over a year in each month

Percent, ours, from the published values

Line
Housing starts−7.1+1.5−7.8+2.4−9.7+13.1+1.0−8.3+4.4−4.4−0.2−7.4
Single-family starts−6.8−8.0−10.4−10.8−15.6+8.3−4.1−5.9−2.5−8.8+3.1+2.6
Starts in buildings of 5 units or more−10.6+36.4+0.5+43.0+12.2+22.4+15.2−13.0+20.7+6.8−7.6−25.9
Building permits−1.2−6.5+1.0−4.8+6.5−8.6−1.5−0.4−1.8+2.4+4.2−3.2
Single-family permits−8.1−6.5−9.4−10.5−5.1−7.2−4.6−1.1−0.1+1.1+1.5−4.7
Permits for buildings of 5 units or more+13.3−8.4+26.7+8.9+37.2−10.7+6.5+1.7−5.5+4.6+11.2+0.6
Housing completions−14.2−9.9−4.1−12.7−15.4−13.3−1.7−13.2−2.0−11.9−24.7−14.0
Single-family completions+3.1+0.3+3.8−7.6−10.6−16.6−7.4−14.6+2.3−9.0−18.7−11.0
Completions in buildings of 5 units or more−39.6−27.4−16.7−22.4−25.6−6.0+8.7−10.1−9.4−19.2−37.2−20.4

Each chip is one month's change from the same month a year earlier. The mark in its middle is zero: a fill to the right of it is a rise and a fill to the left a fall. A longer, brighter fill is a larger change, in five steps up to 22.4 and over. Every chip prints its figure and sign.

Observed .

Understanding housing starts, permits, completions

Where it stands today

The largest change over a year was Single-family starts, up 2.6%, in September 2026.

What do the lines of this page measure?

This page shows the three steps of building a home as the Census Bureau counts them: the units authorized by building permits, the units started and the units completed. Each has the total, the single-family houses and the units in buildings of 5 units or more.

Read more

What 500metrics adds: the change over a year of every line, ranked across the page; the last ten years of every line as rows of small charts; and a table of the change over a year in each of the last twelve months. Lines with a link have a page of their own with the history since the series begins.

The numbers behind the chart

What is the latest value of each line?9 lines, in the sections of the page
Housing units authorized, started and completed: the newest month of each line, its change over a year (ours) and its rank by that change; equal changes share a rank
LineSectionMonthValueChange over a yearRank
Housing startsStarts1,221 thousand−7.4%5
Single-family startsStarts859 thousand+2.6%1
Starts in buildings of 5 units or moreStarts349 thousand−25.9%9
Building permitsPermits1,398 thousand−3.2%3
Single-family permitsPermits846 thousand−4.7%4
Permits for buildings of 5 units or morePermits501 thousand+0.6%2
Housing completionsCompletions1,192 thousand−14.0%7
Single-family completionsCompletions840 thousand−11.0%6
Completions in buildings of 5 units or moreCompletions339 thousand−20.4%8

The table scrolls sideways; the first column stays in place.

What do these figures leave out, and how are they cited?Limits, dates and how to cite

What this number cannot tell you

  • The values come from the Census Bureau's Survey of Construction and Building Permits Survey, so each carries sampling error; the Census Bureau publishes its size and revises earlier months in later releases.
  • Permits are the housing units authorized by building permits in places that issue permits. A start is the digging for the foundation of a building; a completion is a building ready for use. Total counts include buildings of 2 to 4 units; the lines for buildings of 5 units or more and for single-family houses do not add up to it.
  • The values are annual rates: the number of units that would be authorized, started or completed in a year at the pace of the month, after the Census Bureau's seasonal adjustment.
  • The changes, the ranks and the highest and lowest values are ours, worked out from the values the Census Bureau publishes; a change is in percent.
  • This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

Observed . Checked .

How to cite this

U.S. Census Bureau, Economic Indicators. This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau., Housing units authorized, started and completed, seasonally adjusted annual rate, through September 2026. Compiled by 500metrics, "How many new homes does the United States authorize, start and finish?", https://500metrics.com/housing-starts.

Can the data be downloaded?housing-starts.csv

Download the last ten years of every line as CSV: 1,089 rows, to , 58,354 bytes.

Our text and compilation: CC BY 4.0.

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