US housing starts rose 7.2% month-on-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.487 million in January 2026, up from a downwardly revised 1.387 million in December and well above forecasts of 1.35 million. This marked the third consecutive monthly increase, lifting starts to their highest level since February 2025. Multi-family starts jumped 29.1% to a four-month high of 406,000, while single-family starts slipped 2.8% to 935,000. Regionally, construction activity climbed sharply in the South (up 11.4% to 810,000) and the Northeast (47.4% to 196,000), but fell in the West (-7.5% to 307,000) and the Midwest (-10.8% to 174,000).