Housing Starts 1.239M for
Housing Starts came in at 1.239M for Jul 2026, down 12.44% from 1.415M the prior month and 13.48% below its level of 1.432M one year ago. The series has averaged 1.43M since 1959, reaching a record high of 2.494M in January 1972 and a record low of 478 in April 2009.
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<iframe src="https://marketxls.com/embed/indicators/housing-starts" width="100%" height="460" frameborder="0" title="Housing Starts chart"></iframe><p style="font:12px/1.4 sans-serif;margin:4px 0 0"><a href="https://marketxls.com/indicators/housing-starts" rel="nofollow">Housing Starts chart - MarketXLS</a></p>Historical Data
⋮ | ⋮ |
|---|---|
| July 1, 2026 | 1.239M |
| June 1, 2026 | 1.415M |
| May 1, 2026 | 1.182M |
| April 1, 2026 | 1.414M |
| March 1, 2026 | 1.522M |
| February 1, 2026 | 1.346M |
| January 1, 2026 | 1.385M |
| December 1, 2025 | 1.378M |
| November 1, 2025 | 1.319M |
| October 1, 2025 | 1.273M |
| September 1, 2025 | 1.319M |
| August 1, 2025 | 1.291M |
| July 1, 2025 | 1.432M |
| June 1, 2025 | 1.379M |
| May 1, 2025 | 1.289M |
| April 1, 2025 | 1.4M |
| March 1, 2025 | 1.346M |
| February 1, 2025 | 1.491M |
| January 1, 2025 | 1.353M |
| December 1, 2024 | 1.494M |
⋮ | ⋮ |
|---|---|
| October 1, 1992 | 1.244M |
| September 1, 1992 | 1.186M |
| August 1, 1992 | 1.226M |
| July 1, 1992 | 1.139M |
| June 1, 1992 | 1.145M |
| May 1, 1992 | 1.214M |
| April 1, 1992 | 1.099M |
| March 1, 1992 | 1.297M |
| February 1, 1992 | 1.25M |
| January 1, 1992 | 1.176M |
| December 1, 1991 | 1.079M |
| November 1, 1991 | 1.103M |
| October 1, 1991 | 1.079M |
| September 1, 1991 | 1.015M |
| August 1, 1991 | 1.049M |
| July 1, 1991 | 1.063M |
| June 1, 1991 | 1.036M |
| May 1, 1991 | 996 |
| April 1, 1991 | 1.001M |
| March 1, 1991 | 921 |
About Housing Starts
What it measures
Housing Starts (FRED series HOUST) counts the number of new privately owned housing units on which construction began each month, expressed as a seasonally adjusted annual rate in thousands of units. The Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development publish it jointly in the monthly New Residential Construction report, with detail split between single-family homes and multifamily buildings.
Why it matters
Residential construction is among the most interest-rate-sensitive parts of the economy, so starts function as a leading indicator of the broader cycle and a real-time readout of how monetary policy is biting. Each start commits months of spending on labor, materials, appliances, and land development. Analysts covering homebuilders, lumber, cement, and mortgage finance treat the series as a core demand gauge, and chronic underbuilding feeds shelter inflation.
How to read it
Monthly readings are noisy, with wide confidence intervals and heavy weather distortion, so use a three-month average and prioritize the single-family component, which tracks underlying demand better than lumpy multifamily projects. Compare starts against permits: starts running above permits is unsustainable, while a permit overhang implies a coming pickup. Revisions are routine, so initial prints deserve loose interpretation.
Get Housing Starts in Excel
Pull Housing Starts directly into your spreadsheet with a single MarketXLS formula - always current, no copy-pasting:
=HousingStarts()View the Housing Starts formula documentation or browse all 100+ Economic Data functions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the current Housing Starts?
Housing Starts is 1.239M as of July 2026.
What is the all-time high and low of Housing Starts?
The highest value on record is 2.494M (January 1972) and the lowest is 478 (April 2009).
How often is Housing Starts updated?
Housing Starts is published on a monthly basis, sourced from Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED).
How do I get Housing Starts in Excel?
Use the MarketXLS Excel formula =HousingStarts() to pull Housing Starts directly into any cell, with historical values available for analysis.
Stats
| Last Value | 1.239M |
| Latest Period | Jul 2026 |
| Last Updated | August 18 2026, 07:33 |
| Value Previous Month | 1.415M |
| Change From Previous Month | -12.44% |
| Value 1 Year Ago | 1.432M |
| Change From Year Ago | -13.48% |
| Average Growth Rate | -0.43%/yr |
| Record High (Jan 1972) | 2.494M |
| Record Low (Apr 2009) | 478 |
| Long-Term Average | 1.43M |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Adjustment | Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate |
| Unit | Thousands of Units |
Annual Averages
| 2026 | 1.358M |
| 2025 | 1.356M |
| 2024 | 1.37M |
| 2023 | 1.421M |
| 2022 | 1.55M |
| 2021 | 1.603M |
| 2020 | 1.394M |
| 2019 | 1.292M |
| 2018 | 1.247M |
| 2017 | 1.205M |
| 2016 | 1.177M |
| 2015 | 1.107M |
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