Steel Markets
September 20, 2018
Housing Starts Make Surprise Gain in August
Written by Sandy Williams
Housing starts rebounded in August after a lackluster gain in July. Data from HUD and Commerce show new residential housing starts jumped 9.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,282,000 from the upwardly revised July SAAR of 1,174,000. Starts were 9.4 percent higher than August 2017.
The increase took economists by surprise and was a positive sign for the U.S. housing market. The August gain was due mostly to multi-family starts, which soared 27.3 percent compared to a 1.9 percent increase for single-family housing starts.
