Housing Starts
Forward supply. Falls → future inventory squeeze → prices and rents firm up.
- source
- FRED
- frequency
- monthly
- units
- thousands
- s.a.
- yes
Note: Seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR).
Housing starts print at 1.22 million annualized, down 7.4% year-over-year and off 67,000 from August — the third consecutive monthly decline after a peak in March. The pullback is real: builders are throttling production as financing costs stay sticky and lot prices remain elevated, which means the pipeline of new supply hitting the market over the next 6-12 months is smaller than it was a year ago. That tightens the inventory math for both buyers and renters; expect less downward pressure on prices and rents than you'd see in a high-starts environment. Watch whether this stabilizes near 1.2M or rolls lower — a sustained drop below 1.1M would signal builders are genuinely pulling back rather than smoothing seasonal noise.
"""
Housing Starts — Forward supply. Falls → future inventory squeeze → prices and rents firm up.
Freq: monthly · Source: FRED
"""
from fredapi import Fred
fred = Fred(api_key="YOUR_FRED_API_KEY")
series = fred.get_series("HOUST")
print(series.tail())You are analyzing FRED series HOUST — New Privately-Owned Housing Units Started - Total Units. Context: Forward supply. Falls → future inventory squeeze → prices and rents firm up. Attributes - Units: thousands - Frequency: monthly - Source: FRED Latest observation: 1,221k as of 2026-09-01 Year-over-year change: -7.43% Analyze this metric for a tech-forward real estate investor with 1–3 properties. What is it signaling right now? What should I watch next?