2023 First Quarter Housing
U.S. single-family housing starts, building permits rebound.
The U.S. home construction market paused a downward slide that has been propelled by steep increases in mortgage rates in the first quarter. Multi-family (5 units or more) construction permits maintained healthy growth, partially offsetting the decline in single-family home permit applications through February.
The three Lake States all showed a fall from the prior year’s permit applications, with the steepest decline of the three in Michigan, according to statistics from the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank. Housing starts also declined in the South but rose in the West and Northeast.
The average 30-year mortgage interest rate halted its increase in March, according to the St. Louis Fed, which helped steady the market for new house construction.
