The US housing market bounced back in June after one of its uglier months in recent memory. Housing starts climbed to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.321 million units, a 4.6% increase from May’s revised figures, according to data from the US Census Bureau and HUD.
That recovery matters because May was rough. Starts fell 15.4% that month, dragged down by a collapse in apartment construction that saw multifamily starts drop roughly 40%.
Apartments did the heavy lifting
The June recovery was almost entirely a multifamily story. Apartment and condo construction surged 30%, reaching 438,000 units on an annualized basis. Single-family starts, meanwhile, moved in the opposite direction, falling 4.6% to 883,000 units.
Zooming out, the year-over-year picture is less encouraging. Total starts are down 0.5% compared to June of last year.
