US housing starts, 1959 to 2026
US housing starts stood at 1,427 in 2026, up 19.0% on the previous period.
The latest reading is 1.18 million units a year, for May 2026, against 1.39 million units a year in April 2026. The series is monthly (FRED series HOUST) and runs from January 1959.
How it is measured
The number of new housing units on which construction began, from the Census Bureau's monthly survey of builders, seasonally adjusted and expressed at an annual rate in thousands. Starts are the supply side of housing, and among the most interest-rate-sensitive numbers in the economy. The data reaches us through FRED, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis's data service, and originates with the Census Bureau's New Residential Construction survey.
What the curve shows
Builders broke ground at a pace of 1.18 million units a year in May 2026, within a window from 478,000 (April 2009) to 2.49 million (January 1972). The 2006-2009 collapse, a two-thirds fall, remains the sharpest housing supply contraction in the modern record and shaped a decade of undersupply.
Why are starts so sensitive to interest rates?
Single-family or apartments?
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