US housing starts drop to 2020 low, building permits slip

9th Jan 2026 13:47

(Sharecast News) - Delayed economic data released on Friday painted a bleak picture of the US housing market in October, with launches of new housing projects dropping to their lowest in five years and permits for new construction slipping over the month.

Privately-owned housing starts came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.246m in October, some 4.6% below September's level of 1.306m and 7.8% below October 2024.

This came in well short of the 1.330m expected by analysts and was the lowest level since the spring of 2020.

The data, released by the Census Bureau but delayed because of the record-long federal government shutdown from October to mid-November, also showed that building permits - a key measure of future housing activity - also slipped 0.2% to 1.412m,

This represented a 1.1% drop year-on-year, but came in higher than the 1.35m consensus forecast.

Meanwhile, housing completions increased 1.1% over the month to 1.386m but fell 15.3% year-on-year.