(Sharecast News) - US housing starts and building permits both softened in September, according to the Census Bureau, offering another weak read on construction activity as higher mortgage costs continued to weigh on builders.
Housing starts fell 5.2% to an annualised 1.22m, the lowest level since May, while permits dipped 0.2% to 1.4m, though slightly above expectations.
Single‑family starts dropped 4.6% to 859,000, with multi‑family activity down 7.2% to 349,000, underscoring broad caution across the sector. Regionally, starts slumped in the West and Midwest, were flat in the Northeast and rose modestly in the South.
Permits showed a similar pattern, with single‑family authorisations falling 4% to 845,000, while multi‑unit permits rose 5.9% to 503,000, suggesting builders were still lining up future projects even as actual groundbreaking slows.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com