U.S. Housing Starts Fall 5.2% in September, Missing Forecasts

U.S. housing starts fell 5.2% in September to an annualized 1.221 million units, missing forecasts, while Goldman Sachs held its estimate of third-quarter economic growth at 3.3%.

Starts were down from a revised 1.288 million annual pace in August and 7.4% below September 2025. The annualized rate expresses one month's construction activity as a full-year pace; it is not the number of homes begun during September.

Single-family starts declined 4.6% to an annual rate of 859,000. Starts in buildings with at least five units ran at a 349,000 annual pace. Building permits, which precede construction, edged down 0.2% to 1.4 million, including a 4% drop in single-family permits to 845,000.

Goldman Sachs kept its third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) tracking estimate at a 3.3% annual rate. That figure is the bank's estimate of growth, not an official GDP result.

The estimated 5.2% monthly decline in starts carries a margin of error of 11.8 percentage points at the 90% confidence level, so the figures do not establish that construction fell. The first official third-quarter GDP estimate is scheduled for Oct. 29 at 8:30 a.m. ET (12:30 UTC).