Housing Starts: Release Dates, Results & History
Housing Starts last printed 1.24M on Tue, Aug 18, 2026 against a 1.35M consensus forecast and a 1.43M prior, exactly on consensus. Captured live by Helious the moment it printed.
Housing is the most rate-sensitive sector in the economy, which makes starts a real-time read on how much Fed tightening is actually biting. Single-family starts are the signal; multifamily is lumpy and distorts the headline. Residential investment swings punch above their weight in GDP inflections.
The trend, at a glance
How it moves Treasuries
A starts beat is mildly bearish Treasuries. The bigger use is confirmation: housing rolling over is one of the classic first dominoes in the cutting-cycle case. See it scored live on the Helious desk, or read how the standard-deviation surprise is computed.
Recent prints, as captured by the desk
| DATE | ACTUAL | FORECAST | PRIOR | SURPRISE (SD) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.24M | 1.35M | 1.43M | 0.00 | BELOW FORECAST | |
| 1.43M | — | 1.18M | — | ABOVE PRIOR |
The 2 most recent prints from the desk's live capture (began July 2026), a sample. Every row links the print page published the moment the number landed; the full graded history is served by the API.
Official series history
| PERIOD | VALUE (M UNITS SAAR) | PRIOR | CHANGE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.24M | 1.42M | -0.18M | |
| 1.42M | 1.18M | +0.23M | |
| 1.18M | 1.41M | -0.23M | |
| 1.41M | 1.52M | -0.11M | |
| 1.52M | 1.35M | +0.18M | |
| 1.35M | 1.39M | -0.04M | |
| 1.39M | 1.38M | +0.01M | |
| 1.38M | 1.32M | +0.06M |
The most recent official rows; the chart above draws the longer series. Desk-captured prints above include the consensus forecast and standard-deviation surprise the moment each number landed.
Related indicators
Monthly, ~mid-month, jointly with building permits · 8:30 AM ET · download a sample (CSV, recent rows), free to cite with a link to this page. The full history comes through the Helious API and MCP at api.helious.io/mcp, with depth set by plan.