U.S. Housing Starts Fell in August — Update

By Jessica Coacci

Housing starts fell in August as home-building activity declined. Here are the main takeaways from the Commerce Department's report released Thursday:

--Housing starts, a gauge of new residential construction, fell 2.6% in August to 1.275 million. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected a reading of 1.3 million and for starts to rise 4.9% over the month.

--Starts were down 1.2% in August from the same month of 2025.

--Residential permits, another measure of trends in housing construction, were down 2.7% at 1.394 million in August. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected a reading of 1.4 million.

--On Wednesday, the National Association of Home Builders reported builder sentiment fell to its lowest level in a year, suggesting further weakness could be ahead in September's housing starts.

--"The big picture remains that elevated and rising borrowing costs are holding developers back, supporting our view that the downward trend in housing starts has further to run," a note from Capital Economics says.

Write to Jessica Coacci at jessica.coacci@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 17, 2026 09:20 ET (13:20 GMT)