April Housing Starts Fall Less Than Expected Amid Multi-Family Strength

12:41 PM EDT, 05/21/2026 (MT Newswires) -- US housing starts decreased less than estimated in April amid a jump in multi-family projects, while the single-unit component declined, government data showed Thursday.

Starts fell 2.8% sequentially to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.47 million units last month, according to the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The consensus was for a bigger 5.3% drop in a survey compiled by Bloomberg.

"While the March and April starts data lend upside risk to our forecast for starts to remain below 1.4 (million) this year, we would be surprised if the April pace of starts is repeated in May," Oxford Economics Lead US Economist Nancy Vanden Houten said in remarks e-mailed to MT Newswires.

Starts on buildings with at least five units jumped 14% month on month to 529,000 units in April. The single-unit component decreased 9% to 930,000 units.

Among main regions, the Northeast logged the biggest gain of 16% in consolidated starts, while the West and Midwest were up 5% and 2.5%, respectively. Starts fell 11% in the South, according to government data.

Building permits -- which is a forward-looking indicator of homebuilding -- jumped 5.8% to 1.44 million units last month, while Wall Street expected a smaller 2.5% gain. Authorizations of buildings with five or more units surged 23%, while single-family unit permits declined 2.6%, official data showed.

"For housing starts to improve on any kind of sustained basis, homebuilders will need to work down their existing inventory of completed homes for sale," Vanden Houten said. "Mortgage rates have risen back to the levels of late March, and that should provide a headwind to new home sales in the months immediately ahead."

On Monday, data from the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo showed that US homebuilder confidence unexpectedly rose in May despite elevated mortgage rates, macro uncertainty and continued affordability challenges.

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