Declines in the South offset gains in the other regions.
Builder
Housing starts took a significant hit from Hurricane Harvey, which drove starts down sharply in the South region and caused the overall national number to come in 4.7% behind August to an annualized rate of 1,127,000. Starts, however, were up 6.1% from a year earlier.
Single-family housing starts in September were at a rate of 829,000, 4.6% below the revised August figure of 869,000. That decline was driven entirely by the South region, the largest, which posted a 9.3% decline in overall starts and a 15.3% drop in single family. In contrast, single-family starts were up 5.8% in the Northeast, up 10.5% in the Midwest and up 8.1% in the West.
