U.S. Housing Starts Unexpectedly Surge To 11-Month High In January

(RTTNews) - New residential construction in the U.S. unexpectedly surged to their highest level in almost a year in the month of January, the Commerce Department revealed in a report released on Thursday.

The Commerce Department said housing starts spiked by 7.2 percent to an annual rate of 1.487 million in January after jumping by 4.8 percent to a revised rate of 1.387 million in December.

Economists had expected housing starts to slump by 3.9 percent to an annual rate of 1.350 million from the 1.404 million originally reported for the previous month.

With the unexpected jump, housing starts reached their highest annual rate since hitting 1.490 million in February 2025.

Multi-family starts led the way higher, skyrocketing by 29.9 percent to an annual rate of 552,000 while single family starts tumbled by 2.8 percent to an annual rate of 935,000.

"We expect a gradual improvement in housing starts over the course of 2026, but the January data suggests stronger momentum than expected," said Matthew Martin, Senior U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics.

He added, "Still, builders will need to work down their inventory of completed homes for sale before single-family starts rise on a sustained basis."

Meanwhile, the report also said building permits plunged by 5.4 percent to an annual rate of 1.376 million in January after surging by 4.8 percent to a revised rate of 1.455 million in December.

Building permits, an indicator of future housing demand, were expected to tumble by 5.2 percent to an annual rate of 1.410 million from the 1.448 million originally reported for the previous month.

The Commerce Department said multi-family permits plunged by 12.4 percent to an annual rate of 503,000, while single-family permits slid by 0.9 percent to an annual rate of 873,000.