About the US housing starts
Housing starts are the number of new privately owned homes on which construction began, reported monthly by the Census Bureau at a seasonally adjusted annual rate. A reading of 1.40M means builders started homes at a pace of 1.4 million a year that month.
Starts react quickly to mortgage rates and builder confidence, so they often turn down before a recession and recover early. They peaked above 2.2 million a year in the early 1970s and fell below 500,000 in 2009.
Housing Starts by year
| Year | Average | High | Low | December / latest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (to Sep) | 1.35M | 1.52M | 1.18M | 1.22M |
| 2025 | 1.36M | 1.49M | 1.27M | 1.38M |
| 2024 | 1.37M | 1.55M | 1.27M | 1.49M |
| 2023 | 1.42M | 1.61M | 1.32M | 1.50M |
| 2022 | 1.55M | 1.81M | 1.30M | 1.30M |
| 2021 | 1.60M | 1.71M | 1.40M | 1.71M |
| 2020 | 1.39M | 1.61M | 0.94M | 1.61M |
| 2019 | 1.29M | 1.55M | 1.12M | 1.55M |
| 2018 | 1.25M | 1.36M | 1.09M | 1.09M |
| 2017 | 1.20M | 1.27M | 1.15M | 1.18M |
| 2016 | 1.18M | 1.31M | 1.07M | 1.25M |
| 2015 | 1.11M | 1.22M | 0.89M | 1.15M |
| 2014 | 1.00M | 1.08M | 0.89M | 1.07M |
| 2013 | 0.93M | 1.10M | 0.83M | 1.00M |
| 2012 | 0.78M | 0.98M | 0.69M | 0.98M |
| 2011 | 0.61M | 0.71M | 0.52M | 0.69M |
| 2010 | 0.59M | 0.69M | 0.54M | 0.54M |
| 2009 | 0.55M | 0.59M | 0.48M | 0.58M |
| 2008 | 0.90M | 1.10M | 0.56M | 0.56M |
| 2007 | 1.34M | 1.50M | 1.04M | 1.04M |
| 2006 | 1.81M | 2.27M | 1.49M | 1.65M |
| 2005 | 2.07M | 2.21M | 1.86M | 1.99M |
| 2004 | 1.95M | 2.07M | 1.78M | 2.04M |
| 2003 | 1.85M | 2.08M | 1.63M | 2.06M |
| 2002 | 1.71M | 1.83M | 1.59M | 1.79M |
| 2001 | 1.60M | 1.67M | 1.54M | 1.57M |
| 2000 | 1.57M | 1.74M | 1.46M | 1.53M |
| 1999 | 1.65M | 1.75M | 1.55M | 1.71M |
| 1998 | 1.62M | 1.79M | 1.52M | 1.79M |
| 1997 | 1.47M | 1.57M | 1.35M | 1.57M |
Monthly values. The last 30 years are shown; the chart above has the full history since January 1959.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the current US housing starts?
The US housing starts was 1.22M in September 2026, down 7.4% from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
What was the highest US housing starts on record?
Since January 1959, the highest reading was 2.49M in January 1972 and the lowest was 0.48M in April 2009.
Where does this data come from?
The numbers are published by the U.S. Census Bureau and distributed by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in FRED (series HOUST). They are US government statistics in the public domain. Quotelinks checks for new data every day.
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