The U.S. Census Bureau News & U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development report came out with new housing data for July 2011. Although housing starts showed slowdowns, housing completions showed strong progress. Total housing starts in July were 1.5% below June levels at an annual rate of 604,000 units, but these numbers were still 9.8% higher than July 2010. Single-family starts were 4.9% lower than June levels at an annual rate of 425,000 for July. Multi-family starts were at an annualized pace of 170,000, which was 6.3% higher than June 2011.

Housing permits in July were at an annualized pace of 597,000, 3.2% below June levels. But, July permits were still 3.8% higher than July 2010 levels. The single-family component showed the only increase at a mere 0.5% to a rate or 404,000 while the multi-family sector had a 11.9% decrease from June levels.

Housing completions in July were 11.8% above June at a rate of 636,000 for July. This is also 9.5% above July 2010 levels. The single-family component contributed to the increase with a 6.1% increase from June at a rate of 470,000 while the multi-family component showed a 42.3% increase from June levels.

(Source: U.S. Census Bureau News & U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development)