Last Major Data of the Week: US Housing Starts fall to 1.14M (slowest pace since May 2017)

April 19, 2019 ‐ The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly
announced the following new residential construction statistics for March 2019:

Building Permits
Privately‐owned housing units authorized by building permits in March were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of
1,269,000. This is 1.7 percent (±1.4 percent) below the revised February rate of 1,291,000 and is 7.8 percent (±1.9
percent) below the March 2018 rate of 1,377,000. Single‐family authorizations in March were at a rate of 808,000;
this is 1.1 percent (±1.5 percent)* below the revised February figure of 817,000. Authorizations of units in buildings
with five units or more were at a rate of 425,000 in March.
Housing Starts
Privately‐owned housing starts in March were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,139,000. This is 0.3 percent
(±14.6 percent)* below the revised February estimate of 1,142,000 and is 14.2 percent (±8.8 percent) below the
March 2018 rate of 1,327,000. Single‐family housing starts in March were at a rate of 785,000; this is 0.4 percent
(±15.2 percent)* below the revised February figure of 788,000. The March rate for units in buildings with five units
or more was 337,000.
Housing Completions
Privately‐owned housing completions in March were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,313,000. This is 1.9
percent (±19.5 percent)* below the revised February estimate of 1,338,000, but is 6.8 percent (±15.8 percent)*
above the March 2018 rate of 1,229,000. Single‐family housing completions in March were at a rate of 938,000; this
is 11.9 percent (±14.2 percent)* above the revised February rate of 838,000. The March rate for units in buildings
with five units or more was 364,000.

Census Bureau

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Ed Moya

Ed Moya

Contributing Author at OANDA
With more than 20 years’ trading experience, Ed Moya was a Senior Market Analyst with OANDA for the Americas from November 2018 to November 2023. His particular expertise lies across a wide range of asset classes including FX, commodities, fixed income, stocks and cryptocurrencies. Over the course of his career, Ed has worked with some of the leading forex brokerages, research teams and news departments on Wall Street including Global Forex Trading, FX Solutions and Trading Advantage. Prior to OANDA he worked with TradeTheNews.com, where he provided market analysis on economic data and corporate news. Based in New York, Ed is a regular guest on several major financial television networks including CNBC, Bloomberg TV, Yahoo! Finance Live, Fox Business, cheddar news, and CoinDesk TV. His views are trusted by the world’s most respected global newswires including Reuters, Bloomberg and the Associated Press, and he is regularly quoted in leading publications such as MSN, MarketWatch, Forbes, Seeking Alpha, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Ed holds a BA in Economics from Rutgers University.