Constrained housing affordability conditions due to ongoing, elevated interest rates led to a reduction in single-family production to start the new year.

Overall housing starts decreased 9.8% in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.37 million units, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau.

The January reading of 1.37 million starts is the number of housing units builders would begin if development kept this pace for the next 12 months. Within this overall number, single-family starts decreased 8.4% to a 993,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate; the January pace was 1.8% lower than a year ago. The multifamily sector, which includes apartment buildings and condos, decreased 13.5% to an annualized 373,000 pace.

“As mirrored in our latest builder survey, high construction costs, elevated mortgage rates and challenging housing affordability conditions are causing builders to approach the market with caution,” said Carl Harris, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a custom home builder from Wichita, Kan. “The uncertain policy environment in terms of a better regulatory climate and impending tariffs offers both upside and downside risks in the near-term.”

“The single-family home building market is facing competing concerns and opportunities for 2025,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz. “Given persistent affordability concerns, reducing inefficient regulatory costs would offer the best policy path to improve attainable housing supply and bring down shelter inflation.”

On a regional basis compared to the previous month, combined single-family and multifamily starts are 27.6% lower in the Northeast, 10.4% lower in the Midwest, 23.3% lower in the South and 42.3% higher in the West.

Overall permits increased 0.1% to a 1.48 million unit annualized rate in January. Single-family permits were at a 996,000 annual unit rate, remaining unchanged compared to the previous month. Multifamily permits increased 0.2% to an annualized 487,000 pace.

Looking at regional permit data compared to the previous month, permits are 6.1% lower in the Northeast, 1.8% higher in the Midwest, 0.1% lower in the South and 2.3% higher in the West.

The number of single-family homes under construction in January is down 6.3% from a year ago, to 641,000 units. The number of multifamily units under construction is down 22.1% from a year ago, to 768,000 units.

There were 669,000 multifamily completions in January, up 11% from January 2024. For each apartment starting construction, there are 1.8 apartments completing the construction process.