Housing starts in the US dropped by 12.4% from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1.239 units in July of 2026. The result was firmly below market expectations of a softer drop to 1.35 million units, not far from the six-year low of 1.182 million from two months prior. Starts sank by 15.6% in multi-unit houses, while they dropped by 9.9% in single-unit housing. Among different geographical locations, units sank in the Midwest, (27.6% to 173 thousand), South (-12.6% to 645 thousand), and West (-13.8% to 149 thousand). In turn, starts were higher in the Northeast (17.1% to 164 thousand).